[TI] Kate, you have founded The Fetch, Cloud Peeps and Social Melbourne, prior to this your were in a role as digital director for Niche Media (publisher of Marketing and Desktop magazines), why the change and the desire to create and invent your own business?
[KK]I think I’ve always been entrepreneurial at heart and wanting more out of life. I remember sitting at my desk during my role at the magazine publishing company having a burning desire to go to San Francisco. I wanted to talk product and ideas to geeks working on the next big thing. I quit in May 2010, headed there a couple of months later and while it’s certainly been a bumpy ride, haven’t looked back.
It’s probably a similar journey to others, but I felt like I couldn’t not create my own venture. I have somewhat strong opinions about how things should look and function, so I wanted the freedom to make decisions myself and to move with agility. I also wanted flexibility – I love connecting, researching and exploring, so needed to craft a work schedule that suited me. We’re slowly moving out of the pseudo-industrial notion of a workplace and into the future though with many startups leading the way. I believe women will especially benefit from the change.
It changes daily – I go through periods of intense optimism followed by feelings of hopelessness. So many monolithic media companies simply can’t innovate at the speed of the market. The web has obviously changed everything and I don’t need to pull out some sexy stats to show the decline of traditional media and the sharp incline of new – especially social media. Everything is evolving so rapidly, I think our current classification of what’s media doesn’t even work anymore. Multiple layers are being added to the ecosystem – we started with producers but now find ourselves with a myriad of other roles such as visualisers, curators, aggregators, people who add context and depth, and people who summarise for our newly-developed low attention spans. The mindset I feel is failing most right now is the ‘build it and they will come’ one – community and relationships with people can make a brand!
In the immediate future, I think we’ll see a wave of continued consumption from the late majority still discovering the way of the web and a return to simplicity for many of the innovators. These guys are unliking, unsubscribing and unfollowing to get a breather from the sheer content abundance to focus. In terms of business and media, the main revenue source will continue to be advertising-driven and you know, that’s okay. Contrary to current marketing opinion – I actually believe advertising (deals, sponsorships and classifieds) work.
Ah, I kind of touched on this above. I definitely think there will be and already has been a swing. It reminds me of the hipster movement – it’s cool to be contrarian, meta-contrarian and do the opposite etc. Many of my tech-savvy friends are blogging about how they got rid of their iPhone or how they go on digital sabbaticals or silent retreats. I think this is rather characteristic of an extreme audience though – if you work and live on the web – everything seems more intense. So, in the bigger scheme of things, the swing will be insignificant and smartphones will continue to rule the roost. Generally though, people are just developing the tools and understanding to cope with the advances in technology.
It’s rather funny as I’d say I haven’t got any balance in my life right now and I think that’s one of the toughest challenges of being an entrepreneur. I’m a bit of wannabe lifestyle designer, but when you go out on your own – you either end up working 24/7 or experiencing periods of stagnation. Tim Ferris talks about the concept of mini retirements, and although unintentional last year felt a little like this for me. I’d do six months of working non-stop without leisure time (mainly at home in PJs!), to then take off somewhere around the globe doing the part-time digital nomad thing. Sometimes I feel rather spoilt – being able to wake up and do whatever I want each day but there’s a voice inside of me that keeps saying this isn’t real and I should go get a proper job. Better yet, a “career”. I guess all entrepreneurs feel like this. It’s nice to have received a bit of recognition of late though through The Age and Brazen Careerist props.
I was struggling to keep up with all the great stuff happening in Melbourne and couldn’t find a central place for the information. If I wanted to find out what was on, I had to click on 20 different websites and bookmark things for later. People were also starting and running exactly the same events without knowing each other existed. I’m a bit of a neat freak and like putting things in order so I decided to put all the information in an email and send it to my contacts. The response was promising and it quickly spread to other people and cities. The links are similar to what I’ve been sharing on Twitter for a while but more scalable and easier to digest.
What is next for Kate Kendall and The Fetch?
I’m also working on a not-yet launched startup called Cloud Peeps, which connects startups and SMEs with community managers. More soon. I’ll also continue roaming between Melbourne, San Francisco and Berlin.
Failing is crucial and something we need to accept more – particularly in Australia. It’s cool if you have failed something because in most cases – it means you tried. One of the reasons I love Silicon Valley is because of its attitude towards failure: take what you can from it and apply it in the future. There was a time where I thought I failed everything I did. But it’s how you look at it and about the environments you subject yourself too. I’ve done two degrees and although I’d like to think I’m academic, there were some shockingly average marks in there. I’ve had work experiences that didn’t turn out as expected. And relationships too. What I thrive on is the learning. I think you grow more from the struggles than you do the successes.
I go through stages on Twitter. Often I’ll be link happy – sharing what I’m reading and things I recommend, other days I use it just as a pure direct messaging platform and don’t post publicly at all. It is random – and considering I’m in a plethora of times zones at the moment – not really optimised to a certain audience. I have the one Twitter account for personal and professional use – so you might find a tweet of me verbalising an existential crisis followed by a work announcement. I’ve never been one to babble back and forth to connections or share a first world problem though, and am also respectful of quality and output. The last thing I want is my little face spamming your feed!
In terms of checking my iPhone first thing in the morning, yes, I’m guilty as charged. I usually check apps in the following order: Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Path and Flipboard.
I’m still figuring it out myself but I’ve found the more I live in a non-conformist manner, the better life gets. So, I’d say live outside “The Matrix”, believe in yourself, have independent views, never stop growing and embrace change.
All the links are available through http://katekendall.com, @katekendall and http://thefetch.com.
A cup of fresh mint tea.
