This discussion with Peter Mellen, Founder of Netcito, was recorded on March 19, 2020, when many areas of the U.S. were in the early stages of quarantine and the term “social distancing” was just beginning to creep into our daily conversations.
Peter is a lifelong entrepreneur who lives in the Washington, D.C. area. Listen in on our discussion about how our work habits and lives were evolving, how COVID-19 might impact the investment community, and to learn about Peter's entrepreneurial journey.
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Listen to the podcast or watch videos with Peter Mellen, Founder of Netcito, on YouTube:
Peter Mellen, Founder, Netcito (full interview)
Rapid Growth Derailed by the 2001 Dot Com Bust (Highlight video)
Meditation and Yoga: Foundational Practices (Highlight video)
How Much Entrepreneurial Risk is Too Much? (Highlight video)
Subscribe to the Founders and Startups YouTube Channel to see future videos as they're released!
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Here are a few of Peter's roles:
• Founder of Netcito, an invitation-only peer group for founders of companies
• Active involvement with commercial real estate investing and development
• Co-chair of Tides, a philanthropic partner and nonprofit accelerator dedicated to building a world of shared prosperity and social justice
• Entrepreneur-in-residence, founder of the alumni entrepreneur and angel investor networks at Georgetown University
Key takeaways:
+ Netcito connects and inspires innovators and entrepreneurs. The name is a combination of “network” and the Latin word incito, “to inspire.”
+ Some Netcito members, with dozens of employees and millions of dollars in revenue, are faced with revenue plummeting to zero.
+ This may be a great time for someone who’s thinking about starting a business to begin creating.
+ Beware of “entreporn” that glamorizes the startup lifestyle, that may make you feel inadequate. Check out Jonathan Fields’ blog post about this.
+ Book recommendation: Reid Hoffman, The Startup of You. Reid says that if you’ve got a career, you’re an entrepreneur. It’s a mindset rather than what you do in the world. Have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan Z in case everything goes to zero.
+ Future funding will shift. Some industries such as biotech will have greater opportunities while retail, real estate and live events will have a very difficult time. The stock market drop will impact investors’ liquidity resulting in less capital. Deals in the venture capital and angel investor pipelines may be dropped or repriced.
+ From age 11 to 18 Peter spent a great deal of time in an ashram, a community where people of the Hindu faith develop spiritually. It was a melding of Eastern and Western culture in the Philadelphia area. The community evolved to become the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.
+ Peter had unconventional parents. They were college professors who went on to make documentary films. They became interested in yoga in the 1970’s and moved into a home close to the ashram.
+ Peter’s first business was Team Vision Consulting that he created in the early 90s. It provided help desk support for small to medium sized businesses.
+ Peter partnered with a Georgetown University Business School classmate to write a business plan that landed $25,000 in funding before graduation. That company, Headlight, eventually raised over $15 million in venture funding capital.
+ While managing Headlight, Peter was living the entrepreneurial life he aspired to, but felt that something was missing. After the dot com bust, when Peter was 35, he turned to yoga and realized the significance of the values he had grown up with.
+ Peter’s current mindfulness practice includes daily meditation and yoga. As Albert Einstein was known for saying, ideas come from a place beyond the mind. Meditation and yoga position Peter to tend to the space beyond and within the mind.
+ I was encouraged to create a podcast by Peter in Aug. 2015 when we met at Jonathan Fields’ Camp Good Life Project. (Sadly, the camp is no longer happening.) My first Ever Better Podcast was published in Dec. 2015 and I went on to create 90 episodes before creating the Founders and Startups Podcast.
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Learn more about Netcito on their website.
Connect with Peter Mellen on LinkedIn.