Curtis Sasaki of LG NOVA: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Launched My Business or Startup

Taking the risk to start a company is a feat few are fully equipped for. Any business owner knows that the first few years in business are anything but glamorous. Building a successful business takes time, lessons learned, and most importantly, enormous growth as a business owner. What works and what doesn’t when one starts a new business? What are the valuable lessons learned from the “University of Adversity”? As part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Curtis Sasaki.

Curtis Sasaki has over 30 years in Silicon Valley and is currently Senior Advisor to LG NOVA as well as several startups developing hardware, software and services. He was most recently at Samsung Electronics as VP of Ecosystems, Marketing and Communications, General Manager of IoT, and SVP of Media Solutions Center of America where he was responsible for partnerships, developer programs, and development of innovative new services. Prior to Samsung, Curtis held executive positions at RIM, Sun Microsystems where he was responsible for Java in consumer devices, managing Sun’s thin client solutions, and data centers.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Growing up in Hawaii and before the boom of personal computers, I was always interested in taking things apart and putting things together to see how they worked. I had an interest in architecture and design/art but was told there wasn’t any easy career path. Studying mechanical engineering and business brought me into an understanding of both the construction of things and the business/marketing of great ideas.

When I first entered the high-tech industry, I began my journey by designing and engineering printers and working at a computer store where I taught myself both programming and how to repair computers. This was during the early days of the Apple II computer, and I set a stretch goal of someday working at Apple. Eventually, that led to applying, interviewing, and getting hired at Apple and having the opportunity to work with Steve Jobs. Learning from mentors is one of the key things I prioritized throughout my career in Silicon Valley. After 30+ years working for companies like Apple, NeXT, General Magic, Sun Microsystems, and Samsung, and now, LG Electronics, I felt like it was a good time to “retire” from my usual day-to-day, which led me to my work with startups and innovation teams as a mentor myself.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

One challenge I needed to work through within myself at the beginning of my career journey was my shy and introverted demeanor. I sometimes wonder if this was attributed to growing up in a Japanese household, which put the roots of extreme humbleness into my brain.

I overcame this by talking with industry titans and giving keynote speeches in front of 3000+ people, which took a lot of effort but eventually helped me better establish myself as a leader. Managing large teams also helped me come out of my shell, as it demanded providing inspiration and a vision.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I always felt that my inquisitive nature meant that I was born to do big things in the right way. The early mantra at Apple of changing the world for good stuck with me throughout my career and I instilled this ethos into many of my projects. When I truly believed in the impact of my work, it became much easier to get excited in the morning and work with my teams with this clarity of thought.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

While at an early age I hoped to retire early, what I found was with each new project, and each new company, the excitement of re-invention was very motivational. Working with new talent, getting to see different outcomes and continually learning was what kept my career going to where it is now. Today, being able to provide insights to startup companies and teams is a rewarding outcome from my years of being in their shoes. Great outcomes never come easy, and you have to learn from the good and the bad of each experience. Even companies that I worked for that failed, I can say I benefitted by growing my network and really getting to the core understanding of what went wrong.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the things I learned later in my career was trying to understand cultural management styles. Working for US headquartered companies in Silicon Valley had similar ways of communicating and decision making. When I worked for an Asian-based company, I didn’t spend enough time early on to really understand the differing management structures. So, when I had the opportunity to have meetings with the most senior leadership, I would give my unvarnished opinion when asked. What I didn’t understand was this was not necessarily politically correct. Later, other executives would ask me to bring up topics to the same leaders as they didn’t feel comfortable being so direct.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

The mission of LG and LG NOVA to make life good through technology and innovation is one that I think everyone feels is a worthwhile goal. By leveraging the capabilities of a global company with products and services that already touch people’s lives, I truly believe LG can help scale up new businesses outside of our core businesses that can further benefit society — be it in healthcare, electrification, communications, or ESG. We are already working closely with startups from our first global competition and identifying how to combine different products and solutions to grow an even more interesting program and eventually, social impact through technological innovation. This is the 1+1>3 type of thinking.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Throughout anyone’s career, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, you will find times where you need to reboot yourself. This can come by moving to a new project, new part of the organization, or even starting a new company. When you stop learning, that is an early warning sign that you might be approaching a motivational burnout.

During my career, I moved from product management to running a desktop engineering team, to managing Sun Microsystem’s corporate websites, to opening a new research lab on cloud computing. I can say that many of my role-changes weren’t because I had the most experience in the new area, but were earned by my soft skills, such as working well with teams, asking the hard questions, and innovative problem-solving.

One overarching recommendation I have for colleagues in my industry is you must find the balance between feeling “comfortable” and “going for it”. The key to not burning out is having a strong passion for whatever you are working on and working with a team that inspires you.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Mentors are critical to helping you overcome challenges and providing you with a new perspective on things. I was lucky enough to have worked with Steve Jobs who provided a very different model of creating breakthrough products. Seeing the depth of his thinking and level of perfection first-hand was an incredible learning experience. Sure, sometimes it was difficult to really get to the “why”, but it also put in place a key trait that not only impacted my work but also my personal life.

While working at NeXT, we had to develop a metallic logo for our product. It was my task to come up with some options. I’ll never forget the advice Steve had, which was to look at other companies to see if there is something to learn from. After working on more than 20 samples, the result was a beautiful, colored metallic logo that used a special process to create ridges that, when viewed by the user, would sparkle in different ways. This was an offshoot of one of a competitor’s early products, but taken to the next level.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

It’s not just about the products and services I worked on that millions of people have used, but also the traits and thinking that I’ve left with the teams of people I’ve had the privilege to work with over the years. They continue to spread the right mantra and do things that are impacting the world in positive ways.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first launched my business,” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. Be 1000% passionate about what you are about to do. But be ready to pivot: You must not only find a project you are excited about, but also trust your executives to have your back. While working on Java, I proposed integrating Java into consumer devices (phones, game machines, infotainment systems) when the company was focused on enterprise. Luckily, the CEO provided air cover and space to get things moving, which ended up being critical to its success. Today, the effort led to deployment in billions of devices globally.
2. Your first 2–3 hires are the most important: When I was responsible for creating a new research lab, the first three people I hired had my absolute trust and were complimentary to each other in skills which led us to our early success.
3. Don’t expect to get all the answers you need from focus groups or research studies: I’ve worked at companies who spent too much time, money and resources into these since they thought focus groups were critical to getting the right product definitions. What I learned is that focus groups typically never give you the “answers,” but, if necessary, are only useful to validate some of your assumptions. If you don’t inherently understand what you are trying to build, you are not going to learn it from others.
4. Take time out to make sure what you are working on is unique and highly differentiated: As the saying goes, ideas are a dime, a dozen. Everyone can come up with ideas, but execution and a core understanding what is truly unique to your solution is critical. It’s also advisable to constantly ask yourself and your company these questions so you stay true to your idea.
5. Network with other founders to share successes and challenges: One of the best ways to vet problems and see how other founders think through challenges is to get different perspectives. Other founders probably have already gone through the steep learning curve with all the challenges you may find yourself in. They can also introduce you to their network which may provide great recruiting recommendations, investor contacts, and potential partnerships.

Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

I don’t think anything can prepare a person to be a founder. There are many books and articles available, but I don’t think one can fathom all the different considerations and responsibilities, as well as the rate at which new challenges pop up. You must serve as the HR, finance, IT, evangelist, motivator, fundraiser and more, especially at the earliest stages of your company. You must hire very strategically to build the right culture.

Additionally, having other founders as mentors is important to help you with all the highs and lows that come with the territory. Moreover, having a few key hires that you can implicitly trust will be critical as you multi-task and focus on solving the multitude of issues that will inevitable arise. And lastly, if you are not 1000% passionate about what you are trying to build, then you shouldn’t do it until you find a purpose, product or solution that you are passionate about.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

It’s amazing that if you ask yourself one question, akin to “if only this was easier” or “why is something so hard,” you can come up with many ideas. The problem is there are probably only 1 in 100 ideas that are worth pursuing.

While there are so many challenges today that are obvious — climate change, agriculture, drinkable water, etc., the one area that is close to home for me is the aging population. Technologies that we think would be beneficial to the elderly, are rarely adopted by this demographic. Do the elderly want a ChatGPT to keep them company? Do they want cameras monitoring them? How can they go to the grocery store when they no longer drive? How do we ensure they maintain some level of social interaction? I think the opportunity is ripe to leverage technology to assist this growing population, and there’s more work to be done to really understand not only their challenges, but also what solutions are realistic and would make the most impact.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

The best way is to connect with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtissasaki/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.