Ted Leonsis doesn't think much about the current unicorn craze in the startup world.
"It's been been amazing the last couple of years this group think that 'we are all unicorns,'" Leonsis said on Thursday. "How did this start? Unicorns died when things got tough! They're mythical!"
Leonsis was at tech incubator 1776 to speak about entrepreneurship, startups and some of his favorite investments in a conversation with 1776 co-founder Donna Harris. In between entertaining stories about his first business in college (sno-cones) and terrible pitches he's heard (90 minutes of one founder who didn't let anyone from his team speak), Leonsis shared some of his own insights in entrepreneurship and technology.
"I see a lot of bad data, bad mentoring, bad advice," Leonsis said. "I have found a lot of advice is universal and it's more about personal integrity and behavior. I bet on the jockey, not the horse."
"I bet on the jockey, not the horse."
Leonsis mentioned several of Revolution's investments as examples of the kind of people he prefers to work with. He bragged about the success of Optoro, Sweetgreen and CustomInk, prompting more than few rounds of applause from the gathered entrepreneurs. Leonsis also addressed the issue of how people who become entrepreneurs think about themselves and what it means for their companies.
"You don't have to aspire to be Mark Zuckerberg. It's like musicians thinking unless they're U2 they're a failure," Leonsis said."Raising money at stupid valuations early on to declare victory [and saying to a VC] 'my price, your terms' is going to crush expectations and be deleterious to your experience."
Success as an entrepreneur is all about grabbing people's interest, Leonsis said. He cited the example of AOL Instant Messenger, which he referred to as his biggest success. He sent the first ever message on it, a love note to his wife. Finding ways to engage people and thinking beyond yourself is the key for any kind of impact as an entrepreneur, he said.
"You need to activate those communities of interest," Leonsis said. "Get out of the I and into the we."
