Business Meets Art

Interview By: Eric Weiss

EPISODE SUMMARY

JJ took an unconventional path to entrepreneurship. He’s an art and design graduate who noticed a market gap in early tech back in the 90’s. Early in his career, JJ had to train school employees how to use video bulletin software, which is when he realized that the true problem behind why people use software inefficiently is an issue of design, not an issue of user intellect, and that’s the first problem he went on to help solve.

EPISODE NOTES

In this episode, Eric is joined by JJ Parker, a serial entrepreneur who runs Tightrope Media Systems, Carousel Digital Signage and most recently Screenweave, a company that unblocks work by empowering people to communicate asynchronously with video.

JJ took an unconventional path to entrepreneurship. He’s an art and design graduate who noticed a market gap in early tech back in the 90’s. Early in his career, JJ had to train school employees how to use video bulletin software, which is when he realized that the true problem behind why people use software inefficiently is an issue of design, not an issue of user intellect, and that’s the first problem he went on to help solve.

Eric and JJ discuss how entrepreneurs often try to solve a problem that they themselves have not encountered, which leads to a ton of misalignment between the founder and the end-user. A more effective path towards building a successful business is to find a job early on that nobody wants to do, and figure out a way to solve those tasks by innovating the workflow or the available tools.

Running multiple businesses simultaneously is no easy task. When it comes to growth, JJ doesn’t believe in putting all of your eggs in one basket and investing 100% in growing a singular enterprise. He much prefers working on a variety of projects at the same time, although he admits that when you're at an early stage, you need to give your full attention to a singular cause until the business becomes more mature.

Tune in to the full episode to learn what it takes to become a serial entrepreneur!

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