Rebecca Lynn - Finding Your Customers

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (1:42)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO and founding partner of Positive Sum and the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Positive Sum or O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
Clients of Positive Sum or O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:15)
Rebecca co-founded early stage investor Canvas Ventures in 2013 and is regularly featured as one of the best VCs in the market. She has depositioning and go-to-market experience, which she honed during her time at Procter & Gamble, and that's the focus of our discussion. We cover the details of great marketing, why you should say no to customers, and how she has built Canvas.
Please enjoy my discussion with Rebecca Lynn.
So I always try to begin these conversations with something kind of fun. In this case, I thought it'd be interesting to ask you, if you were to go back to your alma mater, which was Mizzou undergrad, we're just talking about a place that I've spent a lot of time in Columbia, Missouri, and you were forced to teach, I'll call it like a 401 level course, a single course to a group of students who have opted into it. That's not a beginner's course, that's an advanced course of some type.
What do you think you do a great job teaching?

**Rebecca Lynn** (3:05)
So I probably wouldn't do nuclear engineering, which is some of what I did when I was there. I probably would go back and teach startup 101 and force everyone into really thinking out of the box and starting a company. What I learned recently through my daughter, who's only 16, is that it almost doesn't matter in a way what your idea is, because you're going to learn so much just by going through that process.
My daughter, Hazel, she came home and she said, Hey, my friend and I want to start a dog running business. I was like, Okay. I almost said, No, that's not super interesting. But then I listened, I learned to listen three more beats typically.
She said, Hey, our advantage is that we're going to run the dogs and actually exercise them. She's a cross-country runner. I said, Okay. She said, Hey, can you spend some time with me and my friend while we do this? So they actually formally booked time on my calendar and they came in, and they had their whole plan. It was so fascinating because what I take for granted, I realize is not sometimes intuitive. We talked all about supply and demand and how to run a meeting, how to run an effective meeting, how to make decisions, how to have accountability, how to try different channels and what you try first, second, and third on how to go to market and acquire supply and demand, and then how to have a customer promise that resonates and deliver that promise, and then how to have an umbrella concept like, Hey, we're going to exercise your obese dog, which is what she's getting the request for. In reality, the dog probably is just going to walk, but they're offering the running part of it as their higher level benefit. I was just fascinated because I thought, Wow, I think a lot of us in our careers take for granted what our knowledge base is. I just realized how incredibly important it is for anyone to learn these concepts and how they do translate from a dog running business to autonomous cars. I think it's just really fascinating because I'd almost challenge people just to pick any idea and let's just go through it. Because the building blocks and the things you ask and the foundational elements are all the same.