- Consulting firm Fndr has built a roster of clients including Snapchat, Vice Media, and Glossier based on an approach they learned while working with the founders of top tech companies like Apple and Airbnb.
- CEO James Vincent said he learned from Apple's Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive that ideas are fragile and must be developed carefully by a small group of people.
- Chief creative officer Stephen Butler said Brian Chesky of Airbnb helped his company overcome big challenges by treating all users like members of a community and repeating that idea over and over again.
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Consulting firm Fndr used its connections in the VC and tech worlds to build up a client roster that includes Vice Media, Glossier, and Snapchat.
But CEO James Vincent said the real key to Fndr's growth was the partners' experience at ad agencies whose clients included today's top tech companies.
Frederic Court, founder of London-based VC firm Felix Capital, a Fndr client, cited their "deep experience in digital, acquired through formative years at Apple."
Below are lessons Fndr learned from Steve Jobs and other luminaries.
Steve Jobs saw value in structure and intimacy, keeping his teams small
Apple's former chief design officer Jonny Ive once described big ideas like the iPhone or the app store as fragile "almost by definition," implying that they relied on intense attention from a small group of people to succeed.
Vincent, who ran the Apple account while at ad agency holding company Omnicom for more than a decade and oversaw some of its best-known ad campaigns, said this concept has been key to Apple's success.
He said Steve Jobs would have a small trusted team focus on one idea for weeks on a highly structured fashion to turn ideas into products.
"That's how you make big leaps - not long meetings with uncertain outcomes where everyone says, 'That was a great meeting,'" Vincent said.
Vincent brought that methodology to his new firm, where they organize short sessions with groups of no more than five people and require each company's founder to have a clear idea of what he or she believes his company to be.
Brian Chesky of Airbnb weathered repeated attacks on his brand by repeating the same message
"James's history with Steve Jobs taught him that there's a time for politeness and a time to say, 'I don't understand that, explain it again,'" said Fndr chief creative officer Stephen Butler.
While working on the Airbnb account at ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, Butler said he saw CEO Brian Chesky explain the idea behind the company repeatedly without losing his cool even as it faced challenges like a failed proposal by San Francisco's local government to regulate short-term rentals and essentially classify Airbnb listings like hotels.
Chesky was dedicated to the idea of Airbnb as a community, which was reflected in its first tagline, "Belong Anywhere," he said.
Vincent and Butler said they try to apply their experiences with these founders to their new clients by drawing out the key stories behind their businesses, as Jobs and Chesky did.
In the case of Snapchat, they focused on the platform as a place where people can connect with friends. Vice Media brought on Fndr after naming Nancy Dubuc as CEO in what Vincent described as a "re-founding" and attempt to repair its culture after reports of mistreatment of female employees.
