plate,” and he always responded, “No, we’re going.” It was someone who had
come from a big company who knew how to act like a big company, even
though behind the scenes it was startup.
Livingston: Was there ever a time when you wanted to quit?
Brady: No. There were a few days where I was really upset, but never close to
the point where I wanted to quit. It was too much fun. After the first 4 to
5 months, you could see what was coming; you knew you were on the wave;
things were only going to grow.
In the first couple of months there were a few days where I felt, “I left
school for this?” Because when I left school, I didn’t know that I was going to
graduate—I just left. I was 70 percent sure that I was going to get a degree, but
that 30 percent was still sitting out there. And my dad had paid for it, so the
thought of telling him I didn’t get it and having this company go belly-up was
like, “That’s a bad scenario.”
Livingston: Was your dad supportive?
Brady: Very. He knew Jerry from undergraduate days.
Livingston: Any advice you’d give to someone who was starting a startup?
Brady: Part of it is “know yourself.” Try to do as much thinking up front as to
what your breaking points are. One of the things I think I did well was that I
never spent any time thinking about quitting or any of these doomsday scenarios,
“Oh, God, what if this doesn’t happen.”
Before I joined, I knew where the line was, when I would quit, at what
point, and so when I was in the game, it never crossed my mind. I also knew
why I was involved, what motivated me, and I didn’t spend a lot of time perseverating
on that stuff. At the end of the day, it wasn’t going to get you anywhere.
It mattered, but only in an abstract way, compared to the day-to-day of getting
stuff done. Doing all that thinking all up front: why am I getting in, when do I
leave, if I leave then why am I doing it, what gets me up in the morning, what
could happen that could make me stop getting up in the morning? I’ve seen a
lot of people get so emotional because they start something on a whim; they are
doing this thinking while they are doing business, and, when things don’t go
well, you don’t act rationally, to say the least. There’s a lot to it; it can get really
emotional because you get tired and there’s a lot of work and you’re invested in
it. All those personally motivating things—think them through before you get
things started.
Jerry was one of my best friends before we started the company, and it’s his
company, so doing business with friends—you always hear, “Don’t do business

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