How to Find a Lost Phone | PhoneHalo

One of the key attributes to any successful team is putting people in the right roles.  In the case of the entrepreneur, you have to put yourself in that role.  In order to be successful, you have to “know yourself”, in latin “Temet Nosce”.

Phone Halo’s team works because we are so different and our differences make us valuable.  It’s NBA Playoff time and I think of the best teams out there and how they complement each other:

In the world of entrepreneurship, a good team functions a lot like a basketball team.  There’s the center, the guard, the forwards.

Each have an important function on the team.  What makes it all work is the respect that the team members have in each other.  What I first loved about Chris Herbert is how much happiness he found in the marvel he had invented.  I know that passion.  It’s something you feel when you wake up, and glides you through arduous hours of coding, painful rejections, and staying close to your singular belief in yourself.  Even if I didn’t love the concept Chris pitched, I knew I wanted to be in business with this guy.  For me, that’s the first part of the equation when team building – finding people I want to be in business with.  I’d take a great management team over a brilliant product any day.  In the case of Phone Halo, we had the opportunity to develop both.

It’s always telling to pinpoint the ‘genesis’ of a business.  What moment made someone decide to create.  In the case of Phone Halo, it was over some dinner at the UCSB Commons.  Chris was hanging out with some friends and a buddy came over and said “dude, I just lost my phone.”  In a moment, the origin of Phone Halo was born.   Sometimes it’s the most down moments that drive innovation.  In this case, it was collective disappointment and empathy – after all who has not lost something of value?  Maybe you have lost a phone, a wallet, car keys?  Everyone has lost track of something.  Parents complain they walk into a grocery store and even the most obedient child wanders off.

Our multi-tasking, super busy lifestyles make even the most necessary items disappear which includes losing phones or keys.  When’s the last time you lost something like that?  Or even misplaced it.  How long did you spend looking for the lost item?  For me, I did a quick analysis.  Even if I spent only 15 minutes week, that’s like 3-4 minutes a day, trying to locate something I misplaced, I would be conservative.  But at 15 minutes a week – let’s run some numbers:

• 15 minutes per week = 1 hour per month = 4 hours per month = 48 hours per year
• 48 hours per year (What is your time worth?)  – Let’s be very conservative and say it’s $20/hour
• $20/hour * 48 per year = $960.00

And that’s just time.  What about the things you cannot do the day you lose your keys, wallet or phone?  Or the cost to replace the items.

For $60, we’re excited to share Phone Halo with the world.

And that’s what Chris felt that moment his friend uttered those common words, “dude, I just lot my phone.”  In moments of pain, we find resolve, and solutions.  Consider that 164,000 people lose their phones each and every day.  Wow.  We can help you.

Christian Smith epitomizes the ‘present’ man.  I felt that energy right away when we met and have seen the focus and attention in his work.  Add to it a passionate talent for industrial design and you have an effective multi-faceted leader.

I’m so grateful for what we have accomplished in a year’s time and how helpful the community has been.  I think about advisors and guides like Jeff Carmody who have tirelessly connected us in the community and enabled key relationships to form.  Or, John Greathouse who has been a close advisor at times and supportive along the way.  I learned a thing or two from John in a recent presentation he gave on ‘TRIBES’ and how to apply Tribal roles to a startup.

Here’s a distilled view of the metaphor:

These are the four basic roles.  At  Phone Halo, we all wear multiple hats.  The core team in addition to advisors and employees each play parts of these essential tribal roles.

Chris is a big time skinner and has technology shaman skill sets.  Chris makes the kill that Christian and I bring look good.  In turn, my role as Chief makes the work that Chris and Christian perform look that much better and develop ways to communicate the value proposition.

One common question is can you build a sustainable company if the core team shares some of these very different responsibilities.  I’m sure that it’s been done before, but I think it’s less likely on average.  The fact is that even if you were one of those rare people that was very good and effective at multiple roles, there’s only so much time in the day.  And, each of these roles contribute to the innovation, operation, and success of a company.  As we attract more talent to our team, we keep our own strengths in mind per Temet Nosce and we can consider the roles of our tribe carefully.

This was a great write up done in Santa Barbara Magazine about the original founders.  We all our very passionate about surfing and doing start up companies.  It’s really our two passions in life.

It’s also great to see some other surf entrepreneurs that come from California such as Bill Tai , who refers to himself as a kiter who VC’s and not the other way around.  Would like to get some other mentions of entrepreneurs and VC’s who surf, kite, and enjoy the ocean.

-Chris