Summary: If you work at a corporation, you’ve probably noticed that your company’s most talented innovators have a tough time quickly turning great ideas into great products. But Greg Larkin, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/This-Might-Get-Fired-Entrepreneurial-ebook/dp/B07C9S9DBJ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Might Get Me Fired</a>, knows how to break the cycle of stale and destructive corporate habits.<br> In this episode, Gregory (<a href="https://twitter.com/gregory_larkin?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@gregory_larkin</a>) shares what he’s learned by launching more than 30 new products with Fortune 500 companies and start-ups. He’s going to show you how to gather support within your organization and launch your product in just two months rather than two years.<br> By the end of this episode, you’ll have the tools to develop your entrepreneurial mindset, and you’ll know when to prioritize your product over your job.<br> <br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/This-Might-Get-Fired-Entrepreneurial-ebook/dp/B07C9S9DBJ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a>Get Gregory’s new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/This-Might-Get-Fired-Entrepreneurial-ebook/dp/B07C9S9DBJ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">This Might Get Me Fired</a> on Amazon.<br> Find out more at <a href="https://www.bowery315.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bowery315</a>.<br> <br> Greg Larkin: I began my entrepreneurial life as the head of products for a really gritty, tough, wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power, startup that was called Innovest. Our CEO was a guy called Matthew Kiernan, and he pushed me very hard to have the audacity to be the only person in the room.<br> I was covering banks during the housing boom. We would get pressure from many of these huge institutions, many of which since failed, and to switch our analysis off to soften our language.<br> Every time that happened, Matthew Kiernan was just, “That’s how you know you’re doing it right, when they’re threatening you with their legal teams, that’s a good sign. When they’re challenging your opinions but can’t discredit your facts, you’re on target. You know it’s working because people are mad at you.”<br> <br> That kind of rebellious audacity was critical.<br> <br> We were one of the earliest voices in finance to have predicted the 2008 financial crisis.<br> Only because he was leaning on me to not be afraid to swim against the tide and not be afraid to be provocative. Not to be reckless, but if your facts are solid, then you can own a virtual monopoly on courage.<br> That kind of disruption was literally the blood that coursed through our veins. It was not a marketing slogan at Innovest.<br> We were acquired in 2009. I had to make the transition for being a startup entrepreneur to being a corporate intrapreneur.<br> <br> Corporate Culture Shock<br> Charlie Hoehn:Who acquired you?<br> Gregory Larkin: We were acquired by a large publicly traded financial services company called Risk Metrics, and then very soon after that, they were acquired by another company called MSCI. I shifted away and became a director in the innovation department of Bloomberg after that.<br> Through those different transitions, the extent to which there were these barriers to launch that had nothing to do with possibility or efficiency but they were entirely this wall of fear, this “wall of can’t.” That was astounding for me.<br> My first meeting with Matthew Kiernan, when a very powerful investment bank called Lehman Brothers had threatened to sue me, I said, “I’m happy to tend my resignation, this is really – I put you in a very rough spot, I’m sorry about this. You tell me what I’ve got to do, I’m happy to quit.”<br> His response was, “No, this is how you know you’re doing it right. You’re supposed to be in this risk, this is how you know you’re growing. If we’re right, we’re going to own a monopoly on being the only ...
