Entrepreneur Spotlight: Scott Smith

What motivates you?

Daily wins, however small or large they may be. A happy customer, a successful teammate, a new personal best in a workout, my kid scoring a goal, or making my wife laugh at a particularly terrible Dad joke. Life is a grind, and it requires persistence, and there will be constant ups and downs. It’s important to find the good things that you can hold onto to bring you through the dark days and moments.

In your opinion, who are the type of people who are successful working at startups?

People who are comfortable with constant change and introspection. It seems like everyday in a startup requires you to look at yourself, be confident in your direction, and your mission, but to realize that you and your business could still be so much better. You need to always be seeking improvement for yourself and your customer, your user, and your team. The moment that you stop looking to improve, that’s when I think you find that you’ll fail.

What do you like to do in your free time away from CloudApp?

  I love taking my kids on a ‘Daddy Date Night’. In the workplace, you go on 1:1s with your coworkers, and at home, I love doing the exact same thing with my kids. I find that I spend a lot of my time focused on work, and I frequently find that I’m distracted — but these 1:1 ‘dates’ bring me back, and allow me to be the dad I want to be.  Giving each of them an hour or two of completely focused and undivided attention. We go bowling, out for ice cream, to the movies, build LEGOs, or go to the comic book store.

What’s your favorite quote?

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Abraham Lincoln

Besides your own, what other startup (any time period) do you wish you could have founded/worked at and why?

NASA, specifically to have been involved with and experience Apollo 11’s historic landing and moonwalk. When President Kennedy said ‘We Choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept.” Imagine spending everyday working to achieve the previously impossible. Scott Smith is CEO of Cloud App, A customer experience led company focused on improving business workflows with video messaging productivity apps. @scotcha1