Now I Know: Entrepreneurs Discuss Success, Failure, And Lessons Learned In New Video Series

Startups and entrepreneurs are far from lacking when it comes to resources that help guide them through the pain-staking yet always rewarding process of building a business. For example, they can check out the Startup Genome Project to see what specific components are integral to building a successful business, check out cool tools like this one to compare their term sheets to industry standards, or even these efforts by the Founder Institute to help founders standardize their relationships with advisors. Obviously, these are only a few of many — when it comes to connecting with funding, there are incubators, Angel List, Kickstarter — the list goes on.

And then there’s entrepreneurial education by way of video series: Back in August, TechStars, the multi-city startup incubator, launched a “reality-documentary” TV series (in collaboration with Bloomberg) designed to give the world a peek at what it’s like to start a business in the fast-paced atmosphere of a tech incubator.

Riffing off video series like this one, Sprinkle Lab, a startup that makes commercial videos for tech companies, launched a series last week that aims to speak to anyone and everyone interested in the world of entrepreneurship. The series, called “Now I Know”, will be releasing a new episode every Monday and Wednesday for the next six weeks that contains a lesson learned, a memorable experience, or personal philosophy from different notable figures in the tech space. It’s slightly reminiscent of The Startup Kids, but instead of focusing on young entrepreneurs, it shares musings on the big issues the tech industry faces today, dished out by experts — of every age.

The series premiered with six episodes featuring author of “The Lean Startup” Eric Ries, Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark, serial entrepreneur, lecturer, and author Steve Blank, Rock Health Founder Halle Tecco, Causes.com Co-founder and VP of Product Chris Chan and TechCrunch columnist and newly-minted CrunchFund VC MG Siegler.

Now I Know’s most recent video, for example, features former TechCruncher and current Accel investment guru Dan Levine talking about the concept of failure and how it might actually not be the best way to learn.

Sprinkle Lab Co-founder Cameron Woodward told us that he and his team founded Sprinkle Lab in March of this year, because they believed that there simply wasn’t enough good video coming out of the tech space. While there is Revision3 and other great video specialists like it, Woodward said that he wanted his startup to focus on making shows that are formatted for television, not just vlog-caliber.

“We’re millennials, so we don’t have that kind of patience”, he said. “We wanted to see something short and sweet and dripping with nerdy goodness”, so having founded a video firm built with MediaCore (a startup focused on letting SMBs build their own video platforms, which we profiled in August) — Sprinkle Lab launched Now I Know based on their desire to see this kind of educational content find a home.

There will be more videos launching next week, and while these videos are great, they leave you wanting more. Hopefully Sprinkle Lab will release the full interviews in the future; I have a feeling they would find an audience. Below is an example of Now I Know’s content, featuring Steve Blank talking about the fundamental differences between small businesses and startups. Check it out: