Ted Leonsis is famous for a lot of reasons. Running AOL, helping found Revolution Growth Fund, owning the Washington Wizards, Mystics and Capitals, but his most enduring legacy may end up being snow cones. Although he's come a long way from that early business selling red, white and blue snow cones during the summer of 1976, his daughter has now picked up the business and is even using the same snow cone maker.
"It's the Cadillac of the industry," Leonsis recalled the seller telling him.
Leonsis covered a lot more than snow cones at the most recent Startup Grind event. Speaking to a packed crowd at the WeWork co-working space in Chinatown. He told the room of entrepreneurs and startup founders about his practically stereotype of a rags-to-riches life. Going from the poor son of Greek immigrants to major tech and business tycoon took a lot of hard work and more than a bit of ingenuity in seeing the right opportunity.
When he found out about the bicentennial bringing millions of tourists to D.C. Leonsis, then a student at Georgetown, knew there had to be a way to sell them something. He bought the snow cone maker and hired classmates to sell the snow cones with the tag line "Be a patriot, eat a snow cone." Of course it all came with the financing aid of his roommate.
"Rich and dumb," Leonsis said. "The kind of investor you all want," he joked before hastening to add that they were still friends.
The snow cone story fits right into the rest of the legendary stories about Ted Leonsis. The stories of how he came up with the idea for a kind of TV Guide for computers in the early 80s to make his first millions, how he came up with a bucket list of things he wanted to make sure he did before he died after fearing for his life during an airplane journey, even how AOL took down the mission statement he had helped make about doing well by doing good all sound more like myths than the real events they are.
The larger-than-life aspects of his journey to success make a lot of sense with his own philosophy on how innovation and the business world should be about more than monetary profit. It's why he hates hearing business pitches that talk about exits as though that was the goal and not doing something worthwhile, helping people while making a profit.
"Don't define yourself and your win on the exit," he said. "Never ever declare victory."
It's why he counts the creation of AOL Instant Messenger and its' ability to connect people as among his greatest accomplishments. It made people happier.
"There's no downside of being happy," he said.
The mostly lighthearted talk ended with what seemed the perfect question, who was his favorite superhero? Leonsis said it was Superman although he could never understand why in the old TV show Superman would laugh at bullets but dodge the gun when it was thrown at him. The Startup Grind team, no doubt echoing the view of a lot of the local tech community, declared Leonsis a kind of superhero himself and presented him with a custom Ted Leonsis superhero action figure to much laughter and applause. Perhaps Leonsis has it right about the entrepreneurial life and the good aspects of starting a new tech business.
"It's not a startup grind, it's a startup joy," hes aid.
