531 – SPECIAL EDITION: Uncut with Nick Ruffini
In this special edition of the podcast, I share an episode from my new podcast Uncut with Nick Ruffini, where I interview drummer and internet pioneer, Lou Montulli.
Why share this episode?
Uncut is all about creative entrepreneurship and takin an idea that’s in your head and executing it. I figured this particular episode would be a good one to share because not only has Lou demonstrated his ability to execute on great ideas, he’s also a drummer (and the inventor of Groove Scribe which you’ve probably seen at MikesLessons.com)
I met Lou through a mutual friend and he is hands-down one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met. Let me give you a little background…
In 1994, he became a founding engineer of Netscape Communications and programmed the networking code for the first versions of the Netscape web browser. He’s also the creator of website cookies, client pull, and push (aka push notifications), animated GIFs and a ton of other technologies including the blink element, and HTTP proxying. You don’t necessarily have to know what all of that means, but rest assured, you benefit from those inventions every time you use the internet.
Lou has been widely recognized for his work and was one of only six inductees in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame announced at the First International Conference on the World-Wide Web in 1994. In 2002 he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
Not only is he a brilliant engineer, he’s also been a successful entrepreneur since 1994 as the founding engineer of epinions.com (which was sold to Shopping.com), 2004 as co-founder and CEO of Memory Matrix which sold to Shutterfly, 2008 as the founder and CEO of cloud-storage company Zetta.com and his latest company, JetInsight, which he started in 2015.
Lou’s ability to dream up an idea and execute that vision is second to none and we unpack those skills and more in this episode.
What we cover:
- Lou’s initial interest with computers and programming
- His thoughts on focus and hard work
- Talent VS Skill
- How to learn
- Surrounding yourself with the right people
- Creating your own narrative
- Building feedback loops for success
- The invention of cookies (the internet browser cookie, not chocolate chip cookies 😉 )
- The quest of becoming a better human
- The amazing fish cam
- Much more…