{"id":38974,"date":"2023-10-20T15:00:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/blogging-pioneer-and-technologist-anil-dashs-two-key-pieces-of-advice-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:00:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:01","slug":"blogging-pioneer-and-technologist-anil-dashs-two-key-pieces-of-advice-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/blogging-pioneer-and-technologist-anil-dashs-two-key-pieces-of-advice-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging pioneer and technologist Anil Dash\u2019s two key pieces of advice &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/l_anildash.jpg\" alt=\"Anil Dash\" title=\"l_anildash\"\/><\/div>\n<p>In a bid to prevent online abuse, New York technologist Anil Dash has challenged tech developers to reflect on their values and envision what the world will look like if their idea succeeds.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><i>Above All Human<\/i><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>conference in Melbourne last week,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/makerspace.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Makerspace<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>cofounder Anil Dash says that the online world, where people spend more time than they do anywhere else, should have the infrastructure to make it safe and accessible for everyone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F245347582&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxwidth=640&#038;maxheight=960\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Backstage, Dash told<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><i>StartupSmart<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i>this was one of the inspirations behind<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/makerspace.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Makerspace<\/a>, an online community for \u201cmakers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the apps we use everyday, there\u2019s no way to see who made them, who designed them, who created them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to the way filmmakers and actors are celebrated through<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IMDb<\/a><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>and award shows, Dash says app creators should be given a face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something that we need as a community to be able to find the people that inspired us or that we learnt from or that we want to connect with in order to ask about how they got to do that in their career,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back at his own journey as a tech developer, Dash shares two key pieces of advice.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Find your community of peers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThe first is to find a community of peers to share your ideas with and get a bit of a sanity check,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Dash says this community will play a critical role through the ups and downs of building your venture including celebrating your wins and helping you when things feel like they\u2019re falling apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate, my co-founder Gina Trapani is a good friend of mine and we\u2019ve known each other for a long time so there\u2019s a lot of that natural rapport and support,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Envision the world if your plan succeeds<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>From his experience with entrepreneurs in the tech industry, Dash says often founders get preoccupied with the prospect of failing and plan accordingly to avoid this risk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we don\u2019t ask often enough is: What does the world look like if my plan succeeds?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Dash says he thinks about his a lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve had the good fortune to watch friends make things that are enormously successful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI come from the world of people that made some of the first social media and social networking tools and I\u2019ve watched people go on and build tools that a billion people use,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>But with the focus on not failing, Dash says many don\u2019t consider what problems would arise in the case that they did succeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the case of social media where these issues around abuse, harassment, bullying and all these other concerns, those all arose because the tools were designed with such fear for failure that there was not any planning for success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Dash says entrepreneurs should really look at why they are building their idea and how it can impact the world if it does become successful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave a very clear idea of the values that your effort is going towards,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><i>Follow\u00a0StartupSmart\u00a0on<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i>,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startupsmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a bid to prevent online abuse, New York technologist Anil Dash has challenged tech developers to reflect on their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}