Lynn Perkins

Entrepreneur

I love creating businesses from scratch and working with smart, motivated people.

Dropbox, HotelTonight, GoodReads, SportsForce

The most rewarding thing about innovation is seeing how your company can positively impact somebody's life through increased efficiency, providing a needed service, or offering a helpful product.

As an entrepreneur it can be frustrating when your live product or service is in one stage but you have a plan of where it can or will be in 6 months and that product or service is even better. Juggling and prioritizing resources early on can be tough.

1. Connect with the customer early on. Getting feedback from users in the demographic you are targeting is really important.

2. Work with great people. There are so many things to accomplish at a startup and it is nice to work with people who trust each other to prioritize their tasks and get the work done. It is even better if you enjoy the company of one another!

3. Maintain some level of patience. Even though new businesses work at an incredible speed I've learned that it can be really valuable when making key decisions to slow it down and even put decisions on hold for some reasonable period of time. Often times the right strategic decision, investment partner selection, or next step for the product actually becomes obvious when you step back and take a break from thinking about the issue.

Lynn Perkins is CEO and co-founder of UrbanSitter.com, an online resource that helps parents and babysitters to connect through people they know. A startup veteran, Lynn has more than 15 years of experience building and growing consumer Internet businesses. Prior to founding to UrbanSitter, Lynn served as founder and CEO of Xuny.com and VP of Business Development at Bridgepath.com. At Gap Inc., LaSalle Partners and Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Lynn gained extensive business and transaction experience. 

Lynn is also the proud mom of three children and a graduate of Stanford University.