Institute For The Future

Status North America Montreal Dustin 12/05/08

Family Context: Now in his mid-thirties, "Dustin," a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, has been starting technology companies since he was a teenager. He grew up in Calgary, Alberta; he moved to Montreal in 1994. His parents and three brothers also live here, and he has a sister in the UK and one in Calgary. Dustin also has a large extended family (70+ cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents).

Dustin lives in a converted warehouse loft, which he describes as a

bachelor pad for a successful entrepreneur geek (which he is), filled with gadgets and electronics. He now shares the space with his girlfriend of 10 years. He works in a multi-ethnic, trendy area of Montreal known as the Plateau, which is home to many creative and techie types. For sentimental reasons, he decided to locate his current office in the same building in which his first company--Canada's first major ISP--was based.

Brief summary of establishing questions of domain:

Dustin has long used online platforms and services to connect with others. He started years ago with BBSs; now he tweets, blogs, and uses social networks like Facebook. Dustin believes strongly in building and maintaining an open network of contacts and sharing his social capital with the next generation of entrepreneurs. He announces upcoming speeches or appearances and encourages people to get in touch with him if they want to meet. When he travels, he also uses Twitter (which updates his Facebook and blog, as well) to arrange ad hoc meetings with people. Although this degree of openness can be costly in terms of attracting cling-ons and stalkers, Dustin finds that the pay off is worthwhile over time.

This commitment to accessibility reflects Dustin's interest in the gift economy, in which transactions occur with no explicit agreement for an immediate or future quid pro quo. He advises, coaches, and nurtures young tech entrepreneurs because he hopes that they will in turn help out others. He believes in the power of social reciprocity, and he gave us an example of how he has experienced it himself. He needed a group of people to beta test a project on short notice, but it had to be kept a secret. He reached out to 350 members of his network, who all kept their participation confidential.

With all of his successes, Dustin has chosen to remain

in Montreal, where as a big fish in a small pond, he feels he can have the

greatest impact.  He uses both his social and his financial capital effectively.  Although he also invests at the venture capital level, Dustin is particularly proud of his role as an angel investor because it allows him to give back to his community by closely mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs.  

Despite his prominence within the Montreal high tech community, Dustin prefers to not flaunt his status.  Instead, he will often get involved in a low-key way, seeking out others and offering to contribute his social capital to get things started and to help out as needed. For example, he played an significan role behind-the-scenes in launching Montreal's Bar Camp movement, but felt that it was important to wait until a critical mass of other participants got involved before he stepped in to further advance the effort to get it off the ground.

General insights:

New online platforms offer people more communication outlets and opportunities to live a public life than ever before. Dustin pointed out that when he was a young entrepreneur, the only way to hear what Bill Gates thought was to attend Comdex (or perhaps to read about a speech). Today, Dustin has more than 1500 people following him on Twitter, and shares his thoughts about the tech world in greater detail on his blog. Author Clay Shirky, who previously reached his audiences via his books and public appearances, has more than 5,000 Twitter followers. (Interestingly, Shirky only follows 50 people, in contrast to Dustin, who follows more than 1000 people.)

When you encounter so many people in your public life, you need a way to help keep track of them.  Old school business cards meet new technology in the form of business card scanners.  Dustin has several--at home and at the office.  The ability to synchronize data between Outlook, LinkedIn, gmail, etc., is also critical to managing large numbers of contacts.  [Scanners also play an important role in tracking other large volumes of information in one's life.  In Dustin's case, he uses a bar code scanner to keep track of his book collection.]

The ideal, one-size-fits-all mobile device may not yet exists for a heavy user like Dustin. The Blackberry offers certain functionality that makes it a preferred communication tool for phone, e-mail, and Twitter.  But the iPhone is better for web browsing, reading, geo-location experimentation, and playing with a host of new apps. Dustin also relies on his iPod for watching videos when he travels.

Early indications of a trend:

* Young people are setting out to become entrepreneurs as a career choice, rather than evolving into the role over time.

* Accelerated serendipity--meeting up with people on the fly is being facilitated by services like Twitter and GPS. (Per Rod, also see co-working space interview in NYC.)

* The gift economy, which emphasizes social or intangible rewards for generosity, can play out on a small scale (like a "pay it forward" book club) or more broadly in terms of how people interact in their business relationships.

* Home health technology