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Why Listen:
I think there's a couple of reasons why you're going to like this episode. First of all, Leemon runs a company called Hedera, and he's Co-founder and Chief Scientist. It is in the blockchain space, which I still understand so little about but still know there are so many possibilities there. He talks about how his career that started at the Air Force Academy led him to that point. One thing I love about my conversation with Leemon is that he's very humble for someone who has founded four incredibly successful companies. And despite having these four successes under his belt, he talks in this interview about how much luck plays a role. Entrepreneurship is a skill that over time if you fail and keep on trying, you can be smart and build up a skill set that can help you increase your chances of success. He talks about how he approaches interactions in business where it's not zero-sum where he tries to make it a win for himself and whoever he's working with. He talks about how he found his Co-founder that he met while in the Air Force and has co-founded four different companies, and tells an incredible story about when his co-founder went to turn down his job, his boss offered his promotion, and the boss ended up investing in their company instead. So tons of great stories here. He does come from a very technical background. He's not only the Chief Technology Officer but the Chief Scientist of his company Hedera. And so you get a different lens. I think we'll oftentimes on the show, we have someone with more of a pure-play business background, and he brings a test tech perspective, including his Ph.D. in Computer Science, in his time teaching computer science at the Air Force Academy.
About Leemon:
Leemon is the inventor of the Hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm, and he's the Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Hedera. Leemon is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy. He was a full professor of computer science at the academy and was on the faculty for eight years. He has been the Co-founder of several startups, including two identity-related startups, both of which were acquired. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and has multiple patents and publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences in computer security, machine learning, and mathematics.
Selected Resources:
Leemon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leemon-baird/
Leemon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/leemonbaird?lang=en
Hedera Hashgraph’s website: https://hedera.com/
Hedera Hashgraph’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hashgraph/
Time Stamps:
Leemon’s background [1:03]
It's all about trust [7:27]
Do everything you can do [12:46]
From Air Force Academy to his first company [13:59]
Leemon’s advice about selecting a co-founder [18:06]
The difference in Leemon’s approaches in entrepreneurship now compared to his first company [21:32]
A day in the life of Leemon [24:00]
Work life balance in entrepreneurship [29:47]
What has been most helpful for Leemon’s success [33:06]