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20VC: InVision Founder Clark Valberg on Why True Leadership is Like Writing, How To Be Truly Self-Aware & The Fundamental False Premise of Entrepreneurship

Aug 30, 2019

Clark Valberg, Founder and CEO of InVision, discusses his journey from running a design agency to revolutionizing product design. He challenges the conventional views of entrepreneurship, arguing that many aspiring entrepreneurs operate under a false premise. Valberg emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and authentic leadership in navigating challenges. He also shares insights on market timing, balancing work with personal life, and how parenthood has influenced his values and approach to success.

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ANECDOTE

InVision's Unintentional Beginnings

Clark Valberg founded InVision to solve internal communication issues at his design agency.
It wasn't initially intended as a product, but a developer suggested turning it into a SaaS offering.

INSIGHT

False Premise of Entrepreneurship

Aspiring entrepreneurs often operate under a false premise of a grand vision.
True entrepreneurship stems from a desire to create something helpful and participate in world change.

ANECDOTE

Surfing the Tide of Change

Clark uses a surfing analogy to describe his approach to entrepreneurship.
Focus on understanding the tide and positioning yourself for the emerging wave, not chasing existing ones.

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Clark Valberg is the Founder & CEO @ InVision, the digital product design platform powering the world's best user experiences. To date, Clark has raised over $350m with InVision from some of the world-leading investors including Iconiq, Spark Capital, Accel, Battery Ventures, Tiger Global, FirstMark and even Atlassian. Prior to founding InVision, Clark spent 8 years as the Co-Founder of Epicenter Consulting, a leading web application design business. If that was not enough, Clark is also a leading angel with a portfolio including Algolia, Voiceflow, Unsplash and BentoBox, just to name a few.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Clark made his way from running a successful design agency to fundamentally changing the way designers design products and consumer experience them through InVision?

2.) Why does Clark believe that all aspiring entrepreneurs questions have a false premise? What is the fundamental false premise of entrepreneurship? How does Clark assess the importance of vision and mission over alternate elements? What advice does Clark give to the many aspiring entrepreneurs that ask for his advice?

3.) How does Clark think about market timing today as an entrepreneur? How does Clark think investors should approach and think about market timing? How does Clark look to measure impact not just size of the market? How has angel investing changed Clark's operating mentality as an entrepreneur with InVision?

3.) Why does Clark believe that enlightenment is a daily task? What does Clark do to fundamentally make himself present enough to appreciate those inflection points and moments of enlightenment? How can everyone use note-taking to gain this level of self-consciousness? How are the notes structured? What routine needs to be built around them?

4.) How does Clark think about taking the time to appreciate the milestones that are achieved? Why do we have to make celebrating a ritual? What can be done to ensure these moments of company and personal growth are recognised? What have been Clark's biggest moments of realisation on this theme?

5.) With InVision being an almost fully remote team, what have been Clark's biggest breakthroughs in making it work so well with his marriage and his family? What are "date days"? How does Clark use them to ensure the right balance of work and romance? What has Clark found to be the weirdest thing of operating a 900-person remote firm?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Clark’s Fave Book: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: The Battle for Your Mind

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