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“I view my job as to add value for my client -- so anything,” Cheng said. “I try to be aggressive, but respectful, in bringing up significant issues that I see that may not have been raised.”
Built In LA caught up with Cheng to hear how and why he dedicates so much to LA’s digital tech community. Below is an abridged version of the interview:
How would you currently assess the LA startup community?
It's ok, not great. The significant minus is that the vast majority of talent, both entrepreneurial and technical, is up in the Valley. You not only have all the startups and large tech companies, Stanford, and a history of entrepreneurship, but you have the huge pull of that region bringing in talent from literally all over the world. New York is second and L.A. is in some tier below that. But this isn't just a qualitative assessment: if you look at dollars invested in startups by region, LA is quite a ways away.
The positive is that I see more people marrying personal passions (and sometimes professional expertise) with entrepreneurship and startups down here. That's exciting. Too frequently in the Valley, the startups are pretty much folks just on the hunt for “something” they can start or something they think that'll work. Here, I'll see people focus in on something where the tie between the founder and the idea is particularly strong.
What stands out to you most from your time at Google?
I think the thing that was fascinating to me about Google (and Amazon.com as well) was they just constantly plowed ahead. If X was broken or Y needed to get built, they would just deploy teams against it and you were expected to figure it out. It could be something really arcane that you had no experience in, but it didn't matter. That's a different mentality from trying to find a domain expert in that field and hiring that person. (And we often found that did not work because those folks often didn't fit culturally, were bureaucratic or maybe weren't good enough) But even if you logically agree with this premise, I think the biggest lesson then becomes that this is a visceral way of feeling about the world: that all things are possible. It's that Steve Jobs "magical thinking" type of thing. Startups are hard and statistically really difficult to be successful. Belief and confidence (and paranoia) are really important attributes.
What has been your biggest struggle in your role as a mentor and advisor?
To be frank, it's staying in close enough touch with the startups I work with. A lot of them have started newsletters and what not just to keep their board / advisors / etc. informed -- and that type of information is super easy for me to process. I may recognize a name or see an early prototype or have familiarity with an issue. But they're fielding so much every day and often, but not always, often I'll get a call when things are feeling a wee bit dire.
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What do you find rewarding about being a mentor?
I met a startup the other day whose CEO was trying to figure out how the company should be spending its time. So he laid out several options and asked which I liked. I strongly advocated a certain option and he ultimately agreed and dropped the other projects.
That's less than 10 minutes of my time, but makes a significant impact on both the day-to-day and long-term impact of that company. Also, he doesn't have to listen to me! He's just getting my input and then making his own decision. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn, but if you're a startup founder, get a handful of people you trust that you can go to for these things! These people will have judgment that can save you a lot of time and maybe make a large strategic difference. The very best do this (Steve Jobs did this with Bill Campbell): they literally had weekly walks where Jobs would discuss the issues he was having at Apple.
Anything else you want the local startup community to know about you? How can they help you in your current endeavors?
If you're a founder or CEO, you should constantly be trying to develop your own point of view on the world. This will serve you really well in your startup. Jobs talked about how he felt like part of his role in product was to go out and experience the world and then to bring that back holistically and integrate it into the product: basically, taste.
As an example for me specifically, it's product above all. I think a lot of folks think about startups and business like an org chart. I can't begin to tell you the number of startups I meet, very early in their life, and the first thing they tell me is they want to hire either a CTO or a product manager. If you're the CEO, you should be the product manager! Jobs, when he was dying, would come into Apple every week to meet with Jony Ive to review the latest designs and products. He wasn't going to fancy board meetings trying to figure out where to deploy cash or whatnot: it was always about product because that's ultimately what's at the heart of the startup. You’re creating fundamental value through product. So orient yourself, your company and, most importantly, your time and focus around product.
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