Building a High Impact Social Enterprise over 20+ Years: Roberto Milk, CEO of NOVICA (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What did you do during those four years?

Roberto Milk: I was working 100-hour weeks. 

Sramana Mitra: You were doing this full-time before launching the site?

Roberto Milk: I was learning as much as I could. I speak with entrepreneurs a lot and just try to think about how to codify this. First step is finding an idea that really is your calling. Next step is building skills if you don’t have them.

I knew that if I wanted to do this, we’d need to be more prepared. We all went in different walks of life. I got into investment banking and learned a lot. As hard as I was working, I was excited about the work. I was working long hours.

Sramana Mitra: Were you making any money during these four years that you were incubating?

Roberto Milk: The first two years, I wasn’t making so much money, especially as I was living in New York. 

Sramana Mitra: Why did you live in New York?

Roberto Milk: That’s where the best jobs were at that time. 

Sramana Mitra: What job are we talking about? I thought you were incubating it.

Roberto Milk: Not in the modern sense of incubation. I would say it’s an idea that’s shepherding along. 

Sramana Mitra: Did you have another job besides this startup?

Roberto Milk: I was working a full-time job.

Sramana Mitra: We have a whole methodology in our program called bootstrapping with a paycheck. You had a full-time job. You were thinking about this and trying to figure out how to launch NOVICA as an artisan marketplace.

Roberto Milk: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: This job that you did was an investment banking job?

Roberto Milk: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: In 1999 when you launched this venture, what did you have? What did you put in place to launch this venture in those four years while you were bootstrapping with a paycheck?

Roberto Milk: Bootstrapping with a paycheck is not a term that I would use for that period. There were no moves being made towards the idea. I was working full-time and acquiring skills.

Sramana Mitra: You were gestating the idea and trying to figure out how you were going to launch?

Roberto Milk: Right. The whole founding group said, “We’re going to come together in the future. First we need to get good at different skills.” I ended up doing finance and business. I was really into learning as much as I could. If there was a retail company and if there was private equity, I was really interested in doing those deals.

This whole time, I was learning and making contacts with a lot of the senior bankers. The money was not so good for the first two years but very good in my third and fourth year as I got promoted. That helped because I had money saved from that. 

Sramana Mitra: In 1999, you quit your job and started NOVICA?

Roberto Milk: I remember the day very clearly. I had a deal that I was working on with the head of our West Coast office. We were going to meet with Michael Jackson. We were selling a company related to Casper the Ghost. Michael Jackson showed interest in this.

We were meeting with him that day. We went up to the business manager’s office waiting for him. He calls in and says that he’s not able to attend the meeting that day because his psychic said that he could not fly. He was coming in a helicopter.

We went down to the lobby. I told Michael Burns, the head of our investment banking office, that I was going to be leaving the firm. I told him about the idea. He said, “I want to invest in this company.” When I told the rest of the people in my office, they also wanted to invest. That was a great way to start.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise in this mode from your colleagues?

Roberto Milk: The first two rounds were $1.5 million.

Sramana Mitra: Who else was in the company when you started this?

Roberto Milk: My mother-in-law. 

Sramana Mitra: What did she join us?

Roberto Milk: She became our President. I was CEO. My brother is our COO. Our best friend from San Antonio was our CTO and CMO. My roommate from Stanford was our VP of International Operations. He founded the Mexico Office. Many of us quit our jobs. He was on a fast track at BCG and he left. We had people all over the world who all started little hubs for NOVICA.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Building a High Impact Social Enterprise over 20+ Years: Roberto Milk, CEO of NOVICA
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