'Learn to fail elegantly' says Creative Commons CEO, Joichi Ito

Joichi Ito's many business ventures - as an investor, an entrepreneur  and as CEO of Creative Commons -are all about connecting people

Serial entrepreneur and investor Joichi Ito believes in perseverance.

"Every single company I did failed," he says of his first ten years as an entrepreneur and investor.

ut despite a number of setbac!s, he has since launched or invested in a string of successful technologycompanies.

is venture capital fund #eoteny $abs loo!s for opportunities in %sia and beyond. %nd &r Ito is also CEOof Creative Commons, a non-profit organisation hich has the goal of "ma!ing it easier for people toshare and build upon the or! of others, consistent ith the rules of copyright".

Joichi Ito as born in Japan and educated in the (). *hile studying at the (niversity of Chicago, hebecame involved in the city's club scene.

eoteny Labs

• +ear founded /

• #o of employees 0

•  %nnual 1urnover  #ot disclosed

• Office locations 2ubai, )ingapore, 1o!yo

• Onership 3rivately held

"I as learning a great deal 4ust or!ing and hanging out in the nightclub," he recalls. "I realised that inthe sort of or!ing-class community of the nightclubs there as a lot of very interesting stuff going on51he communities, people caring for each other."

1he discovery prompted him to 6uestion the value of this studies. e says the "homogenous group ofstudents focused on one thing" meant that he "7asn't8 really learning very much and it asn't particularlye9citing."

"3eople and communities and netor!s are hat I'm interested in," he e9plains.

 %fter leaving university &r Ito or!ed as a 2J and then a 4ournalist but says he "sitched 6uic!ly" totechnology entrepreneurship once he realised that "the internet as really all about connecting people."

!atents

 %s a venture capitalist, Joichi Ito is very specific about the type of companies he invests in.

e favours businesses operating in areas here patents are not alays necessary, such as the internet. %ccording to &r Ito, the high costs of patents mean that smaller companies can rarely afford them,leaving them at ris! of being sued.

Ideas increase in value as they're spread."

Joichi ItoCEO, Creative Commons

e believes that even the onership of one patent is no protection hen faced ith a patent litigationfrom a larger corporation possessing many patents in that area.

"3atents are li!e land mines," he says. "In an area here I see lots of patents, I'm going to be carefulabout any company in that space."

 

e has chosen to invest in online services such as 1itter and :lic!r and says that online success ismore about e9ploiting the fle9ibility of netor!s to promote a product than it is about the product itself.

e gives e9amples of to companies he didn't invest in hich are successful "+ou1ube had arelationship and it figured out ho to connect into &y)pace5 3ay3al figured out a ay to connect intoeay5 It's strategic."

#reedom to create

Joichi Ito is critical of modern ays of communicating ideas.

1he CEO of Creative Commons believes the many tools in place to protect creators often act as barriersto future innovation.

"1here are certain benefits to copyrights and patents and providing an incentive for people to invest inresearch. ut at the same time5 most ideas actually increase in value as they're spread." 1he internet issymbolic of this according to &r Ito.

&any :lic!r users ma!e their or! available under Creative Commons licenses

"If you loo! at the Internet from a technical perspective5you have the netor! and then you have theeb," he says. "1hey're based on these open standards that allo interoperability  and people toparticipate ithout as!ing permission, people to innovate ithout as!ing permission. "

"%nd they've created e9plosions of innovations for things that e couldn't anticipate."

e says the aim of Creative Commons is to ma!e it easier for people to collaborate. "It's a tool that allosyou to legally use copyright ithout having to hire a layer each time to craft a contract hen you're tryingto share" .

#ailure

Joichi Ito as an entrepreneur before he started investing. e says modestly, "e only tal! about oursuccesses but there are probably ten times as many failures that I've started."

ut &r Ito believes the setbac!s ere crucial to his success as an investor. "I thin! it's essential for anyinvestor to have been an entrepreneur. I thin! it's important that you understand that perspective."

One of the most important lessons he learnt as to fail "elegantly."

In fact the angel investor no spots employees from ailing companies. "3eople ho have survivedfailures are 4ust5orth their eight in gold," he e9plains.

"*henever I see a company fail, the first thing I do is I go in and I loo! for those people ho did a good 4ob through that failure and I immediately recruit them."

 %nd Joichi Ito is used to loo!ing for opportunities in places here others might not loo!.

"I believe in serendipity," he says. "If you plan everything you can't be luc!y."