Sam Decker moved here in 1999 to work at Dell and now runs a startup called Mass Relevance.
“I learned more from failures at early startups than I did from success,” said Decker in the latest video on We Are Austin Tech. Every Tuesday, We Are Austin Tech posts a new video on its site featuring an interview with one of Austin’s technology leaders.
In the video, Decker details how his experience at Dell helped him greatly in running his startup.
Cool startups he’s rooting for are Umble and Famigo.
In 10 years from now, Austin will have a higher concentration of high tech. That’s going to cause more traffic congestion. Decker wants more options for mass transportation.
He also wants technology entrepreneurs to think bigger.
Decker’s father often quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line about fear and that motivated Decker into action: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”
“So every time I had a chance to do something that I was either fearful of or didn’t know, I took that opportunity,” he said. “And if you ever feel like your capabilities and competencies aren’t growing it’s a time to go on and do something else. You’re not doing it because your fearful of it. But once you do it it becomes second nature. So everything I’ve done I’ve never done before.”