This is a New York Times video about the Weller brothers and how they ended up working together in the same start-up company.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Marcus and Mitchell got on very well when they were kids.
2 Marcus and Mitchell run several companies together.
3 It was Marcus who had the idea for the Skully helmet.
4 Marcus is the thinker of the two and Mitchell the doer.
5 Marcus and Mitchell's dad also helps in the business.
6 When they were children the family was quite wealthy.
Our mom used to say when we were kids and we’d fight, we’d argue. She’d say, ‘some day, you guys gonna be best friends’. And I was like, no, no. That’s no way. I’m never gonna be friends with Mitch.
We’re not several-time Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs. This is our first company together and we are doing something not because something is something we know we can do but it’s something that we really feel we have to do.
This is me… This is us. And then you get the heck out of here and go finish those slides.
Thanks, brother, for taking away my dignity.
So the Skully helmet is, essentially, a fighter pilot helmet for motorcyclists.
It's an augmented reality motorcycle helmet that takes a 180-degree viewing angle, rear-facing camera, GPS navigation, and telemetry information, and presents it in an infinite focus head-up display.
Marcus brought the first prototype, the kind of alien-headed prototype, over to family Christmas. And so I tried it on for the first time. And it sucked. It was obvious that this was, like, the first one. But it showed promise to the advance that this could have.
I first thought about bringing Mitchell out to help with Skully when the business started really taking off. It was basically in November of last year where I said, I think you should come out here and help, you know. I want you to know that failure is still more likely than success right now. And there's a good chance that I won't be able to pay you for a while. But you can sleep on my couch.
When the opportunity came around, I was like, this is my brother. I mean, he needs my help. And so as soon as he said it, we just got down to brass tacks and made it happen. In the dynamic that Marcus and I have, he's thinker, I'm the doer. I don't really consider myself to be a tech executive. I'm just the guy that makes stuff happen.
It's so critical to have a co-founder that you've got a very, very strong relationship with, one that you can trust, and one that you know you can depend on. And Mitch and I have done that our whole lives.
Whoo, the life story. Okay, so I am born and raised in Minnesota, born in St. Paul, and have basically moved around all of the different suburbs with Marcus and my mother. I don't know who was more mischievous. I think it was him. We both went through different phases of different things. And my dad kind of went out of the picture. So we were on our own. And our mom was raising us. And she was just really trying her best to provide an environment for us that was good. And as I look back on it, I have memories of going to the food bank and getting our groceries for the week. But we always had each other's back. If somebody messed with my brother, they were going to get it. They were going to get it hard.
Is a filet going to be a good choice? Or is there a better steak here?
No. The filet is definitely the way to go. But I will say that the burger is the bomb.
It was definitely a surprise that Skully pulled the family together. I completely was prepared to have that regret—how I spent too much time working and not enough time, you know, spending time with family.
This is definitely better than grandma's.
I wouldn't go that far.
How's she doing?
Not well.
What does Mom say?
I mean, at this point, it's just pain management, comfort.
It's interesting now. My brother and I are facing these challenges together. It sort of holds everything together and the attention in the one place, whereas we all had our separate things going on. And so we'd have to find an excuse or reason or a holiday to pull that all together. But now, it's very easy for my mom to call. And I just put it on speakerphone. And Mitch is right there. And we just have this jam session.
She's just been very happy that we found something in our lives that has brought us together and combined the efforts of both of us, and, you know, of the entire family, around a common cause. I think it's probably pretty gratifying for our mother as well, to know that she was right.
KEY:
1F 2F 3T 4T 5F 6F
