I spend 20 to 30 minutes meditating every morning. Startups present an endless array of tough challenges, and meditation makes a huge difference because it allows me to ensure that I am making grounded and principled decisions rather than making choices out of fear or based on an emotional reaction to adverse circumstances.
Marius Moscovici is the founder and CEO of Metric Insights ). He founded the company in 2010 with the goal of transforming the way business intelligence is performed so that organizations of any size can quickly and easily deploy powerful analytics. Marius has over 20 years of experience in analytics and data warehousing and was previously the co-founder and CEO of Integral Results, a leading business intelligence consulting company that was acquired by Idea Integration. Marius also formed and led the data warehousing and real-time analytics group at Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life.
Where did the idea for Metric Insights come from?
During my career at Oracle (and as founder and CEO of my own consulting firm), I experienced hundreds of business intelligence implementations that all suffered the same fate: Tools were rolled out with great enthusiasm and user adoption, but very rapidly, user engagement with the tools diminished.
I realized that the whole approach to data consumption that focused on data visualization and relied on users to continually monitor and analyze reports and dashboards was flawed. Metric Insights was born to change that consumption model. We like to say we “deliver the news in your data” by pushing relevant and timely data to users so they can take action.
What does your typical day look like, and how do you make it productive?
My days tend to be focused on:
• Collaborating with the team to organize efforts, solve problems, and plan/prioritize work.
• Heads-down work on product and engineering challenges. I don’t get to do any coding these days, but I spend quite a bit of time mapping out product features and implementation approaches.
• Interacting with customers and prospects. There’s nothing more critical than understanding what our customers are experiencing.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I find that my best ideas come to light when I don’t actively think about them. The subconscious is a powerful force that often produces ideas that aren’t accessible to the conscious mind. I will often take a question or a problem, consider it for a bit, and then purposely stop thinking about it. I find that my unconscious can go to work on it, and I’ll often have a good solution pop up when I’m at the gym or doing something else completely unrelated.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
I’m a data geek, and I love the fact that data is becoming a central part of so much of our lives. From Nest to Spotify to Fitbit, everywhere I look, I see how data and smart algorithms are increasingly making a profound difference in our day-to-day lives.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I spend 20 to 30 minutes meditating every morning. Startups present an endless array of tough challenges, and meditation makes a huge difference because it allows me to ensure that I am making grounded and principled decisions rather than making choices out of fear or based on an emotional reaction to adverse circumstances.
What was the worst job you ever had, and what did you learn from it?
Mowing lawns for neighbors for $5 a pop in the heat and humidity of the New Jersey summer was no fun. It gave me a deep appreciation of what hard work really means and instilled in me an understanding of how profoundly education opens doors and impacts a person’s quality of life.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I would trust my instincts more and act more quickly to make adjustments when things aren’t working.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Staying balanced is one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur. I find that it’s critical to make exercise, family time, and sleep a priority no matter how busy I am.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Effective entrepreneurship is a paradox because you have to simultaneously have 100 percent conviction in your direction while continuously challenging your own ideas. If you lack full conviction, no one will follow you. But if you don’t continuously challenge your own thinking, you will certainly fail because it’s impossible to get everything right on the first try.
Every morning, I ask myself the question, “What is most likely to fail today, and what will I do about it?” By anticipating failure, I find that I’m able to react and adjust better when it happens.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Shortly after deploying our software to a very large customer, we deployed a new release that wasn’t tested thoroughly enough. The release introduced massive instability, and the customer nearly lost faith in us. I apologized, provided a specific plan for addressing the issues, and focused our entire team on improving stability. By showing rapid improvements during the subsequent month, we were able to earn back the trust of our customer. This painful experience taught me that it doesn’t matter what features our software has if it isn’t solid. Without stability and scalability, enterprise software is just a fancy demo.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Building a lock screen for phones and tablets that requires the user to solve math problems to access the device. This would be a great way to motivate kids to get better at math.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
I was captain of my chess team in high school. Pretty nerdy, huh? You actually get a varsity letter for that!
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
Asana ). I love the simplicity and the collaboration.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“The Innovator’s Dilemma” is one book that really captures the dynamics of entrepreneurship better than any other that I have read.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
• Stephen Covey )
• Jim Collins )
• Clayton M. Christensen )
Connect:
Website: metricinsights.com )
LinkedIn: ;
Facebook: ;
Twitter: @mmoscovici; @metricinsights
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.