[One Question] Exploring Innovation with Josh Linkner Founder of Platypus Labs

Aug 27, 2019

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Josh Linkner started his career as a jazz guitarist. He has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million. Josh built the largest digital promotions agency in the world, serving 74 of the top 100 brands when he founded ePrize which he later sold. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is a President Barack Obama Champion of Change award recipient. Josh is the author of, two New York Times Bestsellers: Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, and The Road to Reinvention: How to Drive Disruption and Accelerate Transformation, as well as, Hacking Innovation. He is also the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners with Dan Gilbert and Earvin Magic Johnson, investing in and mentoring over 100 startups. His work on innovation has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CNN, and The New York Times. And yes, he still plays a mean jazz guitar. For more information, visit JoshLinkner.com.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:10] Jeremy introduces his guest, Josh Linkner.
[4:00] How Josh learned to remove “Strings” in life and business.
[6:40] Putting yourself out of business.
[8:30] Josh talks about his work with Platypus Labs.
[10:15] The three flavors of innovation.
[13:00] A prison-themed gym.
[16:25] The qualities investors look for.

In this episode…

In what ways does your business need to innovate and think ahead to the next area of growth? Are you moving in the right direction, or do you need to rally the troops? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from innovator and entrepreneur Josh Linkner. In his conversation with Jeremy, Josh opens up about lessons learned from Jazz, why he tires to put himself out of business, the three flavors of innovation, and much more. Have pen and paper ready - you don’t want to miss a minute of this powerful episode!

Innovation is one of those industry words that everyone tries to capitalize on, but few actually have the accomplishments to back up the buzz word. Josh Linkner does more than preach the wonders of innovation - he’s put in the work to push the ball forward. According to Josh, there are three “Flavors” of innovation.

INNOVATION - a drug that saves lives.
Innovation - meaningful innovations that don’t make headlines but they make a difference.
innovation - little micro innovations that are made by regular folks every week.

Which flavor of innovation best describes your approach? What do you plan to do to increase innovation in your organization? Make sure to check out the link to Josh’s website where you can learn more about his take on innovation in the business world.

If you were asked to sit down and decide which startup founder to invest in, which qualities would you look for? Would you look for someone who is brimming with confidence? How would your knowledge base or life experience factor into your decision making? Having had multiple opportunities to invest in startups - Josh Linkner shared the qualities he looks for when sizing up a startup. Josh says that he looks for coachable, openminded, and humble individuals who have a track record of working through adversity toward a positive outcome. What do you think of Josh’s approach? Would you add anything?

Resources Mentioned on this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Rise25’s mission is to connect you with your best referral partners and customers.

We do this in 3 ways…

Our Done for you Media - We help your company completely run and launch your own podcast. we distribute your show across more than 11 different channels including a dedicated blog post and social media. You simply show up and talk and we do everything else. Our team has been working with podcasters since 2009. I personally credit podcasting as the single best thing I have done for my business and my life. It has allowed me to connect with the founders/ceo’s of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, and many more. Besides making best friends and finding my business partner..podcasting has led to relationships with countless customers and referral partners.

Our Done for you Lead Generation- We manually send a consistent flow of customized outreach messages to your ideal clients and referral sources that you want to connect with to generate more business and clients - this is not paid traffic by the way.

Our Done for you VIP Events - We do live in-person VIP Days and receptions. These are 100% outsourced VIP days for software companies and conference organizers so we can help you serve your highest level customers. It may or may not involve Elvis costumes - See video

Rise25 VIP Days have a proven track record of helping companies to get more referrals, increase retention with their VIP customers, and get more engaged new customers without adding extra work to that company’s plate.

Rise25 has hosted VIP events in cities such as Austin, Chicago, Santa Barbara, San Diego, New York, Sonoma, and Las Vegas to name a few.

Since these each require a lot of humans to do the work we have limited bandwidth and only want to work with the right company. so if any sound interesting to you go to Rise25.com and contact us or email support (at) rise25.com.

If your company wants to attract and connect with your highest level customers and referral partners then you can learn more and contact us to find out if your company qualifies at Rise25.com.

Rise25 was cofounded by Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran.