Darryl Ballantyne

Darryl Ballantyne


Toronto, Canada
Member since October 10, 2008
  • About
Education
2004 University of Waterloo B. Math/Business Administration
I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

Companies I've founded or co-founded:
LyricFind, AdProject
Companies I work or worked for:
LyricFind, AdProject
If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to build success and add value to the world.

My favorite startups:

Groupon, Kayak, Uber, Slacker

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Frustrating: Slow pace of dealing with large companies that can't move as quickly as we can.
Rewarding: Putting my signature on a big contract with a great client or supplier.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Committing to specific timelines. Too often early on, we expected things to happen when people said they would - nobody works on your timeline, especially when you're a startup! And even your own teams internally will underestimate the time it'll take to build new things - because they're new!

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

1) Choose who you work with carefully, and get proper protections in place. You'll spend more time with them than anyone else in your life!
2) Cash is king. Save pennies everywhere you can - money is what keeps you going and gets you through when that contract doesn't get signed when you thought it would.
3) Be willing to do any job to get the company through - and only hire people of the same mindset. And remember, hiring the wrong person is way more costly than not hiring the right person.