The Lonely Entrepreneur Interviews: Dave Chase, Digital Health Entrepreneur

The Lonely Entrepreneur Q&A is a monthly series we launched that discusses the struggles, perspectives, and successes of starting your own business with other entrepreneurs. This month we interview Dave Chase, Seattle-based digital health entrepreneur. His entrepreneurial CV includes CEO and co-founder of Avado, now part of WebMD; founder of Rosetium; and Managing Partner at Hf Quad Aim Fund.

TLE:   Dave, as an entrepreneur, what do you consider to be your biggest struggle? What changed?

Dave:  Picking the right focused beachhead. There’s the age-old challenge of there being so much that needs fixing and wanting to do it all. Of course, with limited resources, that’s not feasible but it’s easy to get distracted and question your judgment of what you did focus upon.

TLE:   Sometimes, the best day can also be the loneliest one. What was your loneliest day as an entrepreneur? Your best day?

Dave:  Loneliest day was when I decided it was time to move on from the company that acquired mine but couldn’t tell the rest of the team yet. Awkward. Best day? There were lots of them. Solving big challenges, landing a key customer, the day we got an offer to have the company be acquired and the day that deal closed.

TLE:   We all remember our firsts: first sale, first customer, first time we were in the news. What is your favorite “First” moment as an entrepreneur?

Dave:  The first time going on stage at a major industry event (TechCrunch Disrupt) and the datacenter was down 10 minutes before we were going on stage. Literally, the site came back up 10 seconds before stepping on stage. That was a great test of composure and coming up with a battle plan on the spot if I went on stage “naked” without the technology we were there to demo.

TLE:   Being an entrepreneur is not a job, it’s an identity. What do you consider to be traits an entrepreneur must have to succeed?

Dave:  For sure, the obvious ones apply – grit, vision, optimism, pragmatism. There’s a fine line between determination and delusion. When everyone is telling you that you are wrong, plugging away is tough. It also can help to have a chip on your shoulder about something that keeps you going in the rough times. I certainly had that.

TLE:   Can you identify a damaging perspective that stifled your progress and how you were able to change it to make progress?

Dave: Losing the strength of your conviction on where to focus versus what investors are telling you. I wrote about it on LinkedIn, here.

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