The Skinny On Building A Rocking Startup
A chocolate chip cookie changed Heidi Roizen’s life.
Roizen, 49, is one of Silicon Valley’s best-known venture capitalists. She has been a pivotal player in the valley for years, and counts both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among her friends. In the 1980s, Roizen co-founded a software company with her brother, and then came up with the idea of selling clip art–mini pictures in software.
But in May, Roizen climbed on the bathroom scale and watched as the numbers hit their highest value ever. Although she tried working out and dieting, the campaigns had fizzled. Worse, she was on her way to a board meeting at a startup company located next to a chocolate chip cookie factory. The meeting would feature delightful, fresh-baked cookies. It always did.
“Can’t touch those cookies,” she thought grimly, as she drove to the board meeting, flipping through the music choices in her car’s system to find something to cheer her on. In past years, as she headed into difficult board meetings, she’d treat herself to a blast of defiant music, such as Pink’s “18 Wheeler.” But on this particular day, nothing suited her mood.
“I need that kind of music to lose weight,” she thought. “I need chick empowerment music. I’m going to fit into my skinny jeans. And I wanted the music to be really cool!”
That’s when the entrepreneur in Roizen kicked in. Another person might have just made due with, say, the theme song from the movie Flash Dance. But that wouldn’t do for Roizen.
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Photo by Skinny Little Things LLC.
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