Summary: After graduating from Cornell University, Scott Belsky, now a well-known founder and seed investor, took a corporate job at Goldman Sachs because that was what was accessible to him at the time. “I just absolutely hated it.” When trying to quit that job, his manager asked him what he would want to do instead. Scott explained his interest in leadership development and organizational management, and he was given a management consulting position that would change the course of his career. “I think it was during that period of time I fell in love with the idea of organizing and building culture and stuff like that,” says Scott. Cory Levy, Co-Founder of After School and Founder of Internapalooza, speaks to Behance co-creator, seed investor, and author Scott Belsky in this episode of OFF RCRD. The two discuss Scott’s start in tech, his college experience, the beginning of Scott’s company Behance, mistakes founders make, and much more. Scott’s new position at Goldman Sachs wasn’t his dream job, but it got him closer to his destiny. “I always advise people when they're choosing what to do next, I'm like, "Hey, don't optimize for the additional buck especially early in your career. Just do whatever you can to get incrementally closer to what you're genuinely interested in and what you have skills for or could easily learn and whatever opportunities are around you." Scott’s interest and experience in organizational management led to the idea for Behance, which is now part of Adobe. “The idea was like, ‘Gosh, the creative world proclaims to be one of the most disorganized communities on the planet. Everyone almost wears disorganization as a badge of honor in the art and design worlds, to some extent or at least did, why not just try to help organize and get these people's careers on track and help designers have a more important role within their companies?" Scott and co-founders bootstrapped Behance starting in 2005. Seven years later it sold for over $150M. “We built a very solid strategy and we built the culture that was very much grounded in the reality of a tight budget and out executing our competition. I think that those things helped us succeed over the long-term.” Hear more from Scott Belsky in this episode of OFF RCRD. New episodes are published each Tuesday. Connect with us on Twitter @OFFRCRD.
