Janet Kosloff used to be a nurse. Now she’s a CEO and a poker player, and thinks that playing poker and doing business have a lot in common.
Let’s take a step back. In high school, Kosloff didn’t know what she wanted to do. She ended up following her mother’s advice - “You should be a nurse” - but quickly realized that the profession was not for her. “If your heart is not in it, you’re not going to be good at it,” Kosloff said.
However, this experience as a nurse ended up being the perfect building block for her career. Attracted by the business side of health care, Kosloff went back to school to get a Masters in Healthcare Administration. Today, Kosloff is the co-founder and CEO of InCrowd, a market research firm based on Appleton Street that provides healthcare professionals with on demand market intelligence.
Kosloff ’s first encounter with poker was at a trade show in Las Vegas about three years ago. A colleague of hers asked her to play and Kosloff won her first pot. Not that much, she recalled, probably $10 or $15, but the feeling she got from racking the chips and stacking them up was incredible.
Kosloff soon discovered that poker serves as the perfect analogy for life. “When you’re in a pot and someone makes a big bet against you, it’s sort of like in real life, when someone is being aggressive against you and how you handle it.”
In the case of Kosloff, she noticed that when people were aggressive to her at the poker table, she tended to be really passive. To counter this, she started experimenting with betting back and holding her ground, and bringing this attitude and philosophy into her career.
Last year, Kosloff ran a couple of free seminars about playing poker that was aimed at women in business. The seminar would start with a lecture about how to play the game. Then, a discussion would follow about the parallels between poker and business. People would play together, and then reflect about why they decided to make a certain move instead of another, and whether or not that decision revealed something general or specific about their life or business.
The seminars, which attracted 15 participants each time, took place at Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Cambridge. Thanks to her experience, Kosloff developed a list of tactics that may lead to success both at a poker table and a meeting with a venture capitalist.
Here’s Janet’s advice:
Don’t Be Scared of Bluffing
“[When you're fundraising,] you’re in a position where you’re not necessarily holding a full house. But you have to convince people that you’re going to get there.”
Always Show Strength
“People perceive you in a certain way at the poker table, and also in business. Being confident, strong and assertive pays well in terms of respect you’re going to receive. In either situation, at poker or in business, perceptions are hugely important to how successful one can be.”
Know What Hands to Play and When
According to Kosloff, one of the most important concepts in poker is knowing when to play your hand and knowing when to fold it. “I think the same is true in business: you have to know which battles you want to fight, you have to really stay focused on the ones you think you can win.”
Be Patient and Persistent
“Poker is a game of patience, and and I think business is a game of patience,” Kosloff said. “In business, there are a lot of times when you do everything right and, for whatever reason, you lose the deal or something goes wrong. You have to keep saying, ok, that’s behind me, and what’s next?”
Although strategies to be successful in both poker and business are similar, Kosloff pointed out one crucial difference: “In poker, every hand is like a new day: If you win that hand or if you lose that hand, the hand is over and you get to start fresh. In business, you really have to live with the consequences of all your decisions, and it’s cumulative over time.”
