An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Nothing is perfect. Literally nothing. Expecting it to be, waiting for it, or trying to get it perfect, is an exhausting exercise in futility. Billion dollar businesses are literally built with buggy products everyday. But what do people focus on? The beauty of them. It’s not that they’re unrealistic, it’s that it’s simply best in class. So build upon it and make something even better and more beautiful.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Thorsch.
Nick Thorsch has spent his career in search of a meaningful harmonious blend of work that is purposeful, passionate, and profitable. After having worked at Intel, Microsoft, an Inc 5000 solar company and a $675M AI/ML company, while seeing the world around us go up in flames or smothered by snowstorms, he knew something was missing in the market. An organization was needed to be built to solve climate change at the speed and scale we need, to unite and empower environmentally-friendly Ecopreneurs around our world, so he started Share2Seed.org.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
Thank you for allowing me to share. The earliest life experience I recall being relevant to what motivated me emotionally to pursue the path I’m on today, is from when I was a child watching TV. I remember seeing a commercial about elephants being shot, with a sad sounding narrator’s voice, that made me cry. Why? I didn’t decide to cry, I had no prior emotional connection to elephants, yet I cried uncontrollably. My mom came into the living room to console me, and ask me what happened. I told her what I saw, and she suggested I write a letter. I was also intuitive enough to know that writing a letter wasn’t going to solve that problem — it wasn’t going to stop the hunters with guns. Not knowing what else to do, and knowing my mom didn’t know either, yet still feeling incredibly bothered, I vowed to hunt down why and solve this problem in my lifetime.
I would have to wait, for literally decades, to decide to solve the problem I promised myself I’d solve as a child. As I learned, it’s complicated, deep-rooted, and incredibly intricate. Yet, the root of it is money. A concept foreign to a child. I saw money as a child as an utter distraction from what matters to everyone: loving one another harmoniously. Those mean hunters were absolutely contrary to my heart’s core desire, and obviously also contrary to the desire of animals to also enjoy living their lives in harmony without fear of being shot at. People all around the world justify unexpected actions for righteous reasons, such as “it’s for the good of my family” or “I need to eat”. But what do harmless animals eat, like the elephant, rhino or giraffe? They eat plants. And they grow big and strong! So, why the heck are we eating animal meat? That perplexed me too. Thanks to Google coming along in my generation, I could query every little curiosity I had and learn about different diets that my family and school system never showed me was possible, like the vegetarian diet.
Then I connected the dots. Hunters shoot animals, for money, to feed their family, and sell animal parts, for other people to eat too. So if everyone ate a plant-based diet instead, we’d have more harmony, right? So, then how do we make it easier for the hunter and the animal parts buyers to choose to eat plants instead? And instead of the loggers clearing land for 1 billion cows to graze, why not plant fruit trees for people to eat from instead?
It makes sense, that if people had the hunger, nutritional and financial incentive to make it easier to choose to eat fruit instead of meat, then that would help solve the problem, right? I watch my neighbor pick ripe orange tangerines off his tree, which helps boost his immune system, and he’s healthy at an old age. I, too, got an orange tree planted in my backyard a year ago, and it’s now producing beautiful fruits. If we scaled up fruit trees, down to a local level, it would certainly be easier, cheaper, and better for everyone and our environment. That’s one of the primary goals of my brand new organization that I’m dedicating my life to, Share2Seed.org.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Today’s quote in my Momentum dashboard in Chrome says: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” Pablo Picasso.
Entrepreneurs are rule-breakers in a sense, they create innovative disruption in the marketplace. For it to be sustainable and grow, it has to provide more benefit to our society, whereby rules may be updated to accommodate the new business model, like Uber/Lyft vs. Traditional Taxis.
My first entrepreneurial venture was gathering golf balls from the bushes and lakes of the golf course we lived on in Australia, then sell them back to the golfers on the weekend.
Many bushes, at least, were outside the fence lines of the golf course, so that’s the supply side. For the demand side, the golfers would drive their golf carts between two holes across the public road, so we’d set up shop on the public road and ask them if they’d like to buy our high-end, clean, and cheap golf balls, for just $1 each. They’d buy ’em up!
Now, what I’m focused on and why that’s relevant to me now in my life, is there are very weak rules regarding who can pollute in our shared atmosphere we breathe from, and that bothers me deeply, as well as many others. I would like to breathe fresh, clean air, without worrying what pollutants, or viruses, may be in it.
Conversely, there’s very weak rules regarding the logging and planting of trees in our forests too. There’s also good and bad examples. So the artist side comes in and says “What would be the beauty we’d like to see?” To me, that’s healthy forests, healthy air, beautiful skies, and news of things getting better in our world.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The book I read most recently that’s most relevant to me now, is The New Climate War by Michael E. Mann. He’s one of the climate scientists who in 1998, figured out a way to chart carbon dioxide levels going back over 400 years ago using the geologic record. It produced a “hockey-stick like graph”, showing that from the start of the industrial era around 1850 to now, carbon dioxide emissions and global warming have been going up together. This is hard to tell day to day. One day the weather is nice, the next it’s gray. Year to year, fluctuations occur. So you really have to have a really long-term view to see patterns in the data like this. That was a very clever and convincing way to prove beyond a doubt that human-activities have caused climate change.
Al Gore mentioned in his movie, The Inconvenient Truth (or the sequel), that his professor showed him similar in a class in 1970. In Michael’s book, Exxon Mobil was aware of it too in 1982. So all of that solid evidence begs the question, if knowledge is power, why are weather disasters getting worse, not better? As Michael discusses in his book, it’s due to “Inactivists,” climate change deniers, delayers, and deceivers. Distorters of the truth.
If we ran on a truth based society, we’d actually have solved climate change by now and have cleaner air, much lower natural disaster costs, lower insurance costs, lower national debt, and an increased feeling of global peace.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?
You’re right, there’s a huge chasm between a good idea and good implementation. Businesses within the same industry show different results all the time. For example, Google vs. Bing vs. Yahoo vs. AOL. It’s really about finding that sweet spot of resonance with the market in the right way at the right time. As a VC once told me, in a short way that stuck with me is “talk to your customers”. My approach has been, build an MVP, a Minimal Viable Product, then show it to a variety of people who’ll give you quick and honest feedback. Then iterate, get feedback, iterate, get feedback, iterate, get feedback, until people go from trying to ignore you, to saying it sucks, to saying I get it, to saying I love it. Once they love it, then you’re ready to wrap it up in a pretty gift box and storysell version 1.0. Just like Steve Jobs selling the first iPhone. Then you’ll have more iterations, feedback and versions after it. That’s innovation.
Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?
The wonderful thing about Google and YouTube is it’s given us the power in our hands to make the invisible, visible. To see what’s been done before. To research in depth various ideas. To talk to people in any segment of our society.
One of the best questions I’ve asked myself lately is “I have access to every bit of information at my fingertips: what is the best way to use it to better our world?” That led to market research, talking to leading researchers, talking to people in the environmental niche, and iterating to create something special.
For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.
Ted Turner once said something like “Look over the horizon and see what’s coming.” Right now, that’s solving climate change together. As strong interest and demand are rising, what blue ocean position do you want to be in in the market? “Begin with the end in mind.” Then reverse engineer the steps to get there.
I looked for a blue ocean in which a little innovation and creativity would help energize the next wave of growth. A mentor once taught me “Do what people expect, with a twist.” A better business model, better suppliers, and better distributors, would naturally lead to a better customer experience, better reviews, and better results.
Simply see what options are available, identify what qualifies as “better” presently according to experts and customers, and then align with that. Cheap is cheap for a reason, high profit margins aren’t sustainable with cheap. That’s a false allure. Look at Apple as an example. It aims to be the best value: not too expensive, not too cheap, just right for most people.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Things often take longer, cost more, and cash flow growth is further out than you’d like it to be. So plan and set your expectations accordingly. As Charlie Munger once said “Lower your expectations.” You’ll be happier then and better prepared when opportunities present themselves.
- Nothing is perfect. Literally nothing. Expecting it to be, waiting for it, or trying to get it perfect, is an exhausting exercise in futility. Billion dollar businesses are literally built with buggy products everyday. But what do people focus on? The beauty of them. It’s not that they’re unrealistic, it’s that it’s simply best in class. So build upon it and make something even better and more beautiful.
- Purpose, passion, people, planet and profit. Do all of these things equally align and balance for you with the goal you’re aiming for? You may have an idea you’re passionate about, can you find people who will passionately pay for it too? Then you have resonance, then you have a match. It may take repositioning it several times to get the messaging right, and sharing the right story, so if you believe in it, keep seeking better and better ways and “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
- Focus on the customer, the character, the user’s story, of how their life is better with your product or service. Everyone cares about themselves and how it benefits them emotionally.
- Empathy is a magic key. Putting yourself — visually and emotionally — in someone else’s position, getting a sense of why they do the things they do, why they speak and act a certain way, what their desires and struggles are, getting really deep, vs shallow, with understanding them, will make them feel like you really know them, you’re their friend, you’re truly there to serve them, because you can relate. That’ll separate you from just about every other potential thing they could spend their time, attention, energy and money on.
Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
Talk to lots of people. It’s free! And it’ll save you so much money, time, energy and effort. I know, I’ve wasted a lot of time and money on great ideas that people had previously told me people wouldn’t pay for, even though they loved it. Then I learned why people buy. It’s relevant to their perception and feelings. What related things are people presently buying and why? What’s unique about your offer? How can you get the quickest validation people will buy? Those are the first few steps that you should take.
There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?
Even VCs, Venture Capitalists, have different ideas about how to go about things. People tend to specialize in different areas. For each particular aspect, you want a solid approach.
For example, pricing. Look at what similar suppliers offer and why. What are the pros and cons of each. What’ll enable you to add value to the market in a way that customers value? Is it more or less customer service? Is it a higher or lower price? Is it value-based pricing or ad revenue funded? You can take a deep dive on any particular aspect that’s the most meaningful to your business plan and keep asking yourself core questions to gain insights for free. This process could take months to fully understand and develop. Then you’ll see where your gaps are.
What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?
It really depends on the market you’re going after. If it’s a digital product, you can bootstrap. If it’s a highly capital intensive industry, like car manufacturing, then you’re going to need a ton of capital and credibility.
Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
By looking at my past successes, I was able to identify what worked well and what didn’t, then combine the best of the best to create an even better business that aims to make our world a better place by being a part of the climate change solution.
You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
A movement to make millions of people become Ecopreneurs, to channel our collective time, talent and energy in a united way to solve climate change at the speed and scale we need to ensure we have a happy, healthier future together.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Elon Musk is making the most innovation happen right now in the most important areas, to accelerate the adoption of clean energy. Yet still only 2% of the market owns an EV or solar. For as hard, as fast, and as long as he’s been at it, and to be as happy as he is, is quite a successful accomplishment. I’d love to discuss ways in which we can accelerate adoption with the other 98% of the market, and buy us more time to solve such hard problems, with simple solutions to turn the tide with climate-warming, disaster-causing, carbon dioxide emissions.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Making Something From Nothing: Nick Thorsch Of Share2Seed On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
