"I used to give this talk that was entitled ‘Nine Lessons Learned from Failure’ and the basic idea around that is failure's the best teacher. Success is a terrible teacher, and with each startup, not just my own, but other people's startups, there are two awesome things you get from it. One is you learn something, usually. And two is, you have awesome people that you run into, and if you're lucky enough, you get to take them with you. If you’re lucky enough, you treated them well enough, you get to take them with you along the way. They become your crew. So I feel like I have a small crew now that I'm very grateful for." - Sonny V
"We never talked about heart rate. We never talked about data. We never talked about the megahertz and gigabits, and no technology, no fitness. We just had interesting people doing really interesting things and looking great doing it because that's what people wanted. And if we can encourage those people to work out or to change their mindset about health, then we win from a missional perspective. And we win from a business perspective as well. So that was what Misfit was about. It was going after that segment on the outer ring of customers." - Sonny Vu
"After the recent operating positions, I feel like the 9 lessons I learned from failures are now 11, I haven't learned everything yet. Hopefully, you don't make the same mistakes, but you definitely make new ones all the time. Whether it was hiring, setting up the environment, commercial development, or go-to-market, there are a lot of things to learn in doing a startup. I've raised a lot of money, 22 venture rounds over 25 years, and I would say this: when people say you're a serial entrepreneur, I almost never really know what to say.Mark Zuckerberg is not a serial entrepreneur and he made it. I'm a serial entrepreneur because I haven't made it yet. I'm still trying to make it. There's one recurring theme that comes back time and again. What is the most important role? The role that I feel like I keep having to do whether I like it or not. It’s sales." - Sonny Vu
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on founding Misfit Wearables ($260M Fossil acquisition), Vietnam American roots, and navigating tough decisions.
Keywords: Sonny Vu, Founding Misfit Wearables, $260M Fossil Acquisition, Vietnam American Roots, Navigating Tough Decisions, Vietnam, USA, Founder Story
