In Chapter 8 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage and Motivate Teams?" Rubin shares the new challenge of managing large teams. He finds listening and action to be the two elements that help him be the best manager possible. He discusses what he does to facilitate effective communication and alignment to vision. Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview. As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding. He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to better manage and motivate teams?
Slava Rubin: I think that managing a team is something new since I haven’t managed large teams before but it’s definitely about listening and action. So, I would say that it’s very easy to get caught up in doing too many things and I'm learning along with my team on maintaining focus. Also, it’s very easy to just get caught up in e-mail and back and forth and not really have a quick discussion to make a decision. So, I think the decision making process and ensuring that everybody understands it is very important. Also, it’s important to have people aligned with the vision. It’s so easy in a dynamic company like Indiegogo where we’re hiring new people every month or sometimes there is a new decisions made on priorities for people to either make poor assumptions or actually not hear how we’re making shifts, so it’s really important to over communicate.