My story of failure: Hitting a tree with a baseball bat and killing it. Clayton Rothschild is an entrepreneur from Springfield, MO. He is very interested in the creative destruction and disruptive effect technology has on everyday life. His favorite topics are those that are perhaps undergoing the most disruption: accessibility, economics, consumer behavior, and regulation. He is passionate about product development. He is also the co-founder and co-owner of CloudPano, the standard in 360º virtual tour software. CloudPano has been seen on Redfin and Zillow, and has clients across the globe. In today’s episode Clayton talks about: - why we failed at the in person interview - Clayton’s back problem in last podcast attempt - training for his first marathon - co-foundng CloudPano - virtual tour software - expanding the CloudPano concept to other industries - working tech consulting - making his first website in 4th grade - serving Fortune 500 companies - hustles that didn’t hit - the story of the Baylor Information project - story of Corpus Cristi Roofing leads - loving that Clayton took a chance and went after a project - why it’s about executing well - building a communications platform for frats and sororities - building a fake honor society - what a 21 year old is expected of early on - a bias toward action - sharpening your axe - a networking only available to college students - why startups are able to succeed - delivering value and innovation faster as a startup - the obvious answer of a mentor - his dad and mom being entrepreneurs and teaching him early on - talking business at the table with his parents - his mother making a rule at home that business can’t be spoken at the dinner table - reading The New Yorker and Wall Street Journal as a teenager - meeting Clayton at a coffee shop - informal mentorships - mentored by a manager - delivering electricity to customers - putting supply on the grid and forecasting - trying to become a professional that creates value - a high degree of responsibility - learning how to lead and operate teams - leadership is a balance - mission first plus discipline - mentors model - his business partner as a mentor - why he can be a little pessimistic - how a sales person and tech guru can form a great partnership - cultivating the foil - why CloudPano’s success is about execution - 100% sales and 100% product - bring on the rejection! - a college student selling Cutco knives during the summer - perfect code doesn’t fully affect revenue - basically married to your business partner - reflecting on failures - “Where has there been an abject failure in my life?” - story of starting his career as an accountant and pivoting - general business literacy of accounting - making a space website in 7th grade - starting his first job and realizing that accounting wasn’t for him - building a transition log - the last of a generation of corporate employees - the conviction of entrepreneurship - having the courage to recognize that your career choice may not be the right thing for you - restarting his career - why he grateful for his time as an accountant - the journey of an entrepreneur - “Suffering is a huge component of entrepreneurship.” - story of waking up early and grinding at Starbucks - “The entrepreneurial journey has many moments of discouragement.” - making assessments at the weekly or monthly level - suspending emotion in the day to day - what does God have in store for me? - why working out teaches entrepreneurship - what is Clayton looking forward to - why he wants acreage and wants to homestead - okra - praying with discipline and physical posture - being ok with the suspense - it can take a year or two to execute your goals and that’s ok - having the discipline to say no to other projects