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John Richards shared thisTHREE YEARS OF BUILDING. THEN HE FINALLY LISTENED. https://lnkd.in/g3_QqHAh My son Tyler Richards and I sat down with Nate Quigley and Vanessa Quigley, the married co-founders of Chatbooks, to talk about product-market fit, distribution, and building a company as a family. For three years, Nate kept building a family-memories app. More features. More complexity. Almost nobody using it. Vanessa finally told him she didn’t want to use it. Neither did her sisters or her friends. What she wanted was much simpler: print her Instagram photos. Once the first books existed, people weren’t saying, “I should do that.” They were asking, “Can I give you my credit card?” Within three days of launch, demand exceeded their printing capacity. That is a useful contrast for founders. Polite enthusiasm is not the same as customer demand. A few lessons I took from the conversation: • Listen to the actual customer. Your product expertise can become a liability if it keeps you defending complexity. • Remove work. Chatbooks wasn’t just selling a book; it was making family memories easier to preserve. • Find distribution, then keep adapting. The first influencer outreach involved hand-delivered books and cookies. A later viral ad wasn’t a repeatable growth guarantee. • Don’t assume you own your platform access. They diversified away from Instagram well before losing that photo source. • Product-market fit isn’t a lifetime pass. They had to find the next growth product with Month Books. We also talked about the real tradeoffs of running a company together while raising seven children. Vanessa’s sacrifices deserve as much attention as the growth story. Nate’s advice: “Don’t quit. Don’t run out of money.” Vanessa’s: choose your partner carefully. Persistence matters. So does being willing to change what you’re building. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gXrb-ry5 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gA9damXV #StartupIgnition #Chatbooks #ProductMarketFit #LeanStartup #FounderLessons #FamilyBusiness #UtahTech https://lnkd.in/g3_QqHAhNate & Vanessa Quigley: Married Co-Founders of Chatbooks, Product-Market Fit, VC, Family BusinessNate & Vanessa Quigley: Married Co-Founders of Chatbooks, Product-Market Fit, VC, Family Business
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John Richards shared thisVENTURE CAPITAL IS NOT FREE FUEL https://lnkd.in/eFg3F5ev My son Tyler Richards and I sat down with Peter Harris, co-founder and partner of University Growth Fund, for a conversation about venture capital, student investors, missed deals, AI, and what founders should understand before they raise money. Peter helped build one of the most unusual venture platforms in the country: a student-run venture capital fund where students do real sourcing, diligence, investment work, and portfolio support alongside the partners. That model has put University Growth Fund around companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Lyft, Airbnb, and Pattern. It has also produced real career outcomes for students because they are not just studying venture capital. They are practicing it. A few lessons from the conversation: • Judgment is built by doing real work, not watching from the sidelines. • Access comes when you create value. UGF can bring disciplined diligence and a trained student team to funds and founders. • Missed deals are part of the business. Peter told the painful story of passing on SpaceX at a $20 billion valuation after one of his students pounded the table for the deal. • Raising a fund is its own startup. Peter described grinding for two years to raise a $32 million Fund I, then going to market with Fund II right as COVID hit. • 2021 distorted venture behavior. When capital is too easy, price discipline disappears and the music eventually stops. • AI may push venture toward a world where companies are either first or big, because the cost to build keeps falling and distribution/scale matter even more. Peter also gave founders a warning I wish more founders heard early: don’t raise venture capital unless it is actually the right instrument for the company. His analogy was intentionally uncomfortable: venture can be like taking heroin to run faster. It may give you speed, but it is not free. The expectations, pressure, dilution, and required growth path are real. That does not mean venture capital is bad. It means founders should be honest about whether they are building a company that fits the venture path. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gXrb-ry5 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gA9damXV #StartupIgnition #PeterHarris #UniversityGrowthFund #VentureCapital #StartupAdvice #FounderLessons #StudentInvestors #BYU #OpenAI #Anthropic #Databricks #SpaceX #AIPeter Harris: GP of a Student-Ran VC University Growth Fund, OpenAI, Anthropic, passing on SpaceXPeter Harris: GP of a Student-Ran VC University Growth Fund, OpenAI, Anthropic, passing on SpaceX
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John Richards shared thisDON’T BUILD YOUR STARTUP ON RENTED GROUND https://lnkd.in/gZa-N_qd My son Tyler Richards and I sat down with Bubba Page for a conversation every founder should hear. Bubba’s path has real range: Brigham Young University entrepreneurship, a first startup where he turned a $5,000 investment into a 10x return, building LaunchLeads into a multi-million-dollar company, winning Google for Startups Weekend, going through Techstars Boulder, raising $1.25 million for Outro, and now backing consumer brands through Influence.vc. The clearest operating lesson came from the hard part: Outro was built on LinkedIn data. Then LinkedIn changed its platform and the business was cut off at the knees. That is a founder warning label. A few practical lessons from the conversation: • Do not build the whole company on a platform you do not control. • Distribution, data access, APIs, algorithms, and marketplace rules are strategic risks—not footnotes. • Get mentors early. Trial and error is an expensive teacher. • Show up consistently. Networking compounds when people see you doing the work over time. • When things go badly, communicate honestly with investors. The best investors may still believe in you if you handle failure with integrity. • Be careful tying your identity to your startup. Bubba was candid: “I lost myself in this process.” • Success is not worth much if it costs you faith, family, and the people who matter most. I appreciated Bubba’s honesty because founders often hear only the clean version after everything works. This episode includes the messier middle: the platform risk, the investor conversations, the depression, the return to the core business, and the process of rebuilding around what matters. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gXrb-ry5 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gA9damXV #StartupIgnition #BubbaPage #LaunchLeads #Techstars #LinkedIn #InfluenceVC #Entrepreneurship #StartupAdvice #FounderLessons #AngelInvesting #UtahTech #BYU https://lnkd.in/gZa-N_qdBubba Page: I Lost Myself In Startup Failure, Techstars, LinkedIn, Angel, Faith, Influencers, 8 kidsBubba Page: I Lost Myself In Startup Failure, Techstars, LinkedIn, Angel, Faith, Influencers, 8 kids
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John Richards shared thisFOLLOW YOUR GIFTS—NOT JUST YOUR PASSION https://lnkd.in/gdSzjePv My son Tyler Richardsr and I sat down with Arian Lewis, co-founder and CEO of Kiln, for a conversation about the long road that creates real founder-market fit. Arian grew up in Provo City watching his single mother build a childcare business. He spent eight years learning real estate and community building at PULTE HOME CORPORATION, moved his family to the University of Oxford for an MBA, helped create fintech coworking spaces at Barclays, and ultimately came home to build Kiln. That path matters. The best founders usually do not start with a random idea. They spend years developing judgment, relationships, and practical knowledge around a problem they are unusually equipped to solve. A few lessons from the conversation: • Founder-market fit is earned through real operating experience. • Capital creates accountability; take it only when you are clear-eyed about the work ahead. • Flexibility in real estate can be a strategic advantage, especially when a company’s team and needs are changing quickly. • The cost of a poor work environment can show up in recruiting, retention, and decision velocity—not just rent. • In-person teams make better, faster decisions because buy-in is built face-to-face. • As AI makes information more accessible, creativity, collaboration, and attention become more valuable. Arian’s final advice was simple and important: do not just follow your passion. Identify your gifts and use them to make a real contribution. You will love being excellent at meaningful work. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gXrb-ry5 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gA9damXV #StartupIgnition #ArianLewis #Kiln #FounderMarketFit #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Coworking #UtahTech #AI #CompanyCultureArian Lewis: Kiln Coworking, Follow Your Gifts Not Passion, Real Estate, WeWork, Barclays, OxfordArian Lewis: Kiln Coworking, Follow Your Gifts Not Passion, Real Estate, WeWork, Barclays, Oxford
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John Richards shared thisFrom a cookie sheet in his mom's kitchen to every Costco in the country https://lnkd.in/gEzkefZm My son Tyler Richards and I sat down with Sterling Jones, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of JOJO's Chocolate, for one of my favorite Startup Ignition Podcast episodes so far. Sterling was a Brigham Young University sophomore with no major when his mom, Jody "JoJo" Jones, started making protein-packed dark chocolate bark on a cookie sheet while fighting cancer. Twelve years later, JOJO's Chocolate has done over $100 million in revenue in the last three years alone and sits in every Costco in the country. The story is both inspiring and brutally practical: - Sterling sold out a CrossFit booth with $1,500 of product. - A KSL 5 TV article created 100 orders overnight, which meant a 105-degree Arizona chocolate run to the post office before everything melted. - He slept in his car to pitch San Francisco yoga studios. - He cold-emailed five retail buyers a day. - He got the Costco Wholesale "yes" - and then waited a full year for the test to happen. Then came the hard part: over-hiring after a raise, cutting the team from 20 to 6, losing money at $20 million in revenue, and having the board bring in a new CEO over him. Sterling was honest about how much that hurt. He was also honest about what changed: clearer finances, better operating discipline, and the humility to move from founder/CEO to the role where he could help the company most. JOJO's then doubled to $40 million and became profitable. We also got into CPG lessons that apply far beyond chocolate: - Why a hero product usually comes before a broad product line - Product vs. brand, and why both matter at different stages - Why online-first can help retail - but chocolate is brutally hard to ship - How slotting fees, end caps, Costco roadshows, and retail buyers really work - Why 300 Sprouts stores moved less volume than 15 Costcos - When a growing company actually needs a CFO Sterling's core advice to founders was simple: just start. Don't mortgage the house. Don't pretend you have the whole thing figured out. Make the product, sell the first units, talk to customers, email the buyer, and learn from the market. That advice hit home for me. Entrepreneurship is a worthy life endeavor, and Sterling's story is a powerful reminder that a real company often starts with a real person, a real problem, and a willingness to do unscalable things long before the world notices. Watch the episode here: https://lnkd.in/gEzkefZm And please follow/subscribe! YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gtGrkjcd Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gDHAVqM5 #startupignition #SiliconSlopes #entrepreneurship #LeanStartup #utahentrepreneurs #privateequityinvestors #sterlingjones #jojoschocolate #CPG #costco #foodstartup #startupadvice #founderstory #juststartSterling Jones: From Mom's Kitchen to Every Costco, $100M in 3 Years, JoJo's Chocolate, CPGSterling Jones: From Mom's Kitchen to Every Costco, $100M in 3 Years, JoJo's Chocolate, CPG
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John Richards shared thisAdam Sidwell: Worked on Pirates & Transformers, Now Betting His Studio on AI, Gaming, VFX Adam Sidwell spent nine years inside Hollywood visual effects — ILM, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks — working on King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean, iRobot, and Transformers, starting at $13.64 an hour writing code for blockbusters. Then he walked away to scratch a creative itch of his own. The founder of Future House Studios tells my son Tyler Richards and I how a Random House book deal died on his birthday and pushed him into self-publishing (Evertaster hit Amazon's top 100 on launch day), how his BYU student film Lemmings won a student Academy Award presented by Pixar's Pete Docter, and what a pinball startup's collapse taught him about premature scaling. From there: founding Future House Studios mid-COVID with a dollar on the desk, building virtual concerts for Justin Bieber and The Weeknd, why "metaverse" became a word his company won't say out loud, where AR and VR actually landed after the hype, and a spirited debate on whether AI is stealing creative jobs or minting new studios — including Swords of Secret, the game Adam couldn't have afforded to build without it. His number one tip for entrepreneurs: go spend time in the trenches, and earn your founder-market fit. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! Link to full episode: https://lnkd.in/gUFtkUS4 YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gtGrkjcd Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gDHAVqM5 #startupignition #SiliconSlopes #entrepreneurship #LeanStartup #UtahEntrepreneurs #PrivateEquity https://lnkd.in/gUFtkUS4Adam Sidwell: Worked on Pirates & Transformers, Now Betting His Studio on AI, Gaming, VFXAdam Sidwell: Worked on Pirates & Transformers, Now Betting His Studio on AI, Gaming, VFX
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John Richards shared thisThis podcast episode helps you know if your startup idea is as good as you think it is! My son Tyler Richards and I take on the question every founder is asking in 2026: How do you know if your startup idea is actually good, now that AI can build almost anything in a weekend? We start with Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad 2026 write-up — his Stanford teams talked to 978 customers, and his verdict is that AI is making builders lazier about lean startup right when its principles matter most. From there: the "vibe-coding psychosis" (a slick MVP is not validation), what H1 2026's record $510B in venture funding really means when the top AI companies swallow most of it — including a single $110B OpenAI round — and why the PC, internet, and AI revolutions are the same movie of winners and losers. I, John Richards, lay out my test for a fundable idea: find a must-have workflow and drop its cost 90% or double its output. Plus: narrowing to a wedge (be the AI for HVAC installers, not "AI for sales"), why an orthodontist will never vibe-code his own practice software, using your first five customers as a laboratory, the Ash Maurya debate about letting founders run, and the discipline that saves you from burning two-thirds of your raise before the pivot. Also: an icebreaker on what AI actually did for them this week — car-hunting cron jobs, inbox zero, and the pickleball app that made my local players group better. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! Link to full episode: https://lnkd.in/gBjGKCqn YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gtGrkjcd Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gDHAVqM5 #startupignition #SiliconSlopes #entrepreneurship #leanstartup #UtahEntrepreneurs #privateequity https://lnkd.in/gBjGKCqnJohn & Tyler: Is Your Startup Idea Actually Good? AI, Vibe Coding, Steve Blank & Idea ValidationJohn & Tyler: Is Your Startup Idea Actually Good? AI, Vibe Coding, Steve Blank & Idea Validation
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John Richards shared thisClint Betts: You Are Not Your Career, Silicon Slopes, Burnout & Identity, Utah Tech, Community In this episode of the Startup Ignition Podcast, my son and partner Tyler Richards and I sit down with Clint Betts, CEO of Silicon Slopes — the nonprofit at the heart of Utah's tech ecosystem. His path is one of the most unlikely in Utah tech: foster care and adoption in Spanish Fork, Utah, a journalism degree from Utah Valley University, and a blog inside a Provo, Utah dev shop (Beehive Startups) that became the storytelling engine of Utah tech — until Josh James called and it merged into the Silicon Slopes we know today. Along the way: 5,000 people at the first Silicon Slopes Summit (Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook and Marc Benioff since), running it all on five employees, the Test Utah firestorm that landed him in the hospital for three weeks with AFib, the identity lesson that followed — you are not your career — and Start School, his free "entrepreneurship for the 99%" program (450+ companies, 45% women-led). Plus: Utah as ground zero for the AI data-center debate, the coming SaaS correction, and the two rules he'd leave every founder with: show up, and give more than you take. Check it out! And please follow/subscribe! Link to full episode: https://lnkd.in/gMD9u_dS YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gtGrkjcd Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gafSbrb4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gDHAVqM5 #startupignition #siliconslopes #entrepreneurship #LEANSTARTUP #utahentrepreneurs #privateequity https://lnkd.in/gMD9u_dSClint Betts: You Are Not Your Career, Silicon Slopes, Burnout & Identity, Utah Tech, CommunityClint Betts: You Are Not Your Career, Silicon Slopes, Burnout & Identity, Utah Tech, Community
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John Richards shared thisCALLING ALL STARTUP ENTREPRENEURS! I founded with my sons 11 years ago a bootcamp for entrepreneurs. Rooted in lean startup methodologies and my developed entrepreneurship curriculum from my 12 years spent teaching at Brigham Young University, about 1,000 startup entrepreneurs have been trained on what to do and what not to do. Dates for the next Cohort of the Startup Ignition Bootcamp have been set! September 21-23, 2025 at the Startup Building in Provo, Utah (where it all began). AI-enhanced experience! Recent cohorts are enjoying the new Startup Ignition ToolSuite, making the entire lean startup process, faster, cheaper, and better. Mentoring is now more scalable and getting through the arduous process of validation has now gone from weeks and months to days and weeks, maybe even hours and days! No joke! We train you on the principles, what to do and what not to do, and then supercharge your ability to do it. Sign up now. No inflation. Tuition is still $1,999 with discounts for women, co-founders, etc. Alumni still get the $500 "Refresher" tuition. https://lnkd.in/gGFFY7AXStartup Bootcamp in Provo, Utah — Sep 21-23, 2026 | Startup IgnitionStartup Bootcamp in Provo, Utah — Sep 21-23, 2026 | Startup Ignition
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John Richards liked thisJohn Richards liked thisSupport local round four! Rob Poleki is a friend of mine who has built an incredible business around... believe it or not, toilets! Specifically toilet seats. He's in the business of keeping things clean, and he recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring his technology to your home. I'm a big believer in supporting Kickstarters to help people fund their ideas and bring their ideas to life. They've already raised $70,000, which is a huge milestone, and I've been impressed with his effort to make this campaign a huge success. I get nothing from this post other than helping a friend succeed in what he has poured his heart and soul into. It's awesome to see entrepreneurs building. I'm definitely going to pick up a seat myself. Check the top comment for a link to his Kickstarter campaign.
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John Richards liked thisJohn Richards liked thisMeet Matt Smith, the VP of Engineering at Pattern and one of the judges for the AI Utah 100 Matt is one of the people I’m most grateful to have met in Utah tech. We met around 2007, when he hosted the “Web Startup Group” at BYU....bringing computer science and business students together to transform the web. Nearly 20 years later, that still sticks with me. Matt was bringing people with different skills together around what they could build. His career has since taken him from CTO at Lingotek to VP of Engineering at Pattern. He’s also a judge for the AI Utah 100, helping recognize the talent shaping Utah’s AI community. But what I appreciate most about Matt isn’t on his résumé. I’ve learned many technical lessons from him over the years. My favorite lesson, though, has been his example of how to be a warm and genuine human being. Matt has left a lasting impression on Utah tech....and on me. Thank you, Matt. I’m grateful our paths crossed back at BYU.
Experience & Education
Projects
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Camp 4 at the Startup Building
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A co-working space for early stage businesses and entrepreneurs - centrally located south of downtown Provo, across from UTA Frontrunner
Other creatorsSee project
Honors & Awards
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Mentor of the Year
Funding Universe
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Teacher of the Year
Brigham Young University | Marriott School of Management | Business Management Department
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Greatest Contribution to Entrepreneurs
Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum
Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Spanish
Professional working proficiency
Recommendations received
33 people have recommended John
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