Donna Novistky is Chief Executive Officer of BigTent, a technology company that provides free, Web-based software to community groups. BigTent connects people with the communities they care about, making it easy for groups and their members to participate, communicate, and organize. Donna, a mother of two, joined BigTent from Mohr, Davidow Ventures where she was a Partner, helping startups lay the foundation for success. Donna answered these questions for us:
How did you begin working with Big Tent?
“BigTent combines my professional and personal passions – building companies and supporting families and volunteer communities. I had been in venture capital for eight years, after a successful career as an entrepreneur in the ‘90s. I fell in love with BigTent’s business and social mission – the combination of both is so powerful - and decided to go back to my entrepreneurial roots to build a successful business that also serves volunteer communities. The team is fantastic and our members and groups are truly a source of inspiration every day.”
Big Tent is a great idea and now has members in every state according to your website. To what do you attribute its success?
“The success is because we are a place online where people enjoy and feel safe sharing questions about and photos of their families, and organizing community activities. We have thousands of local and virtual groups who use BigTent because we make it simple for members - having everything in one place (discussions, calendars/events/rsvps, classifieds, profiles, rosters, etc), and we save group leaders a lot of time and drudgery (membership management, payment processing, easy reporting, etc.).”
I see a lot of women are involved in Big Tent. Do you find most of your members are women?
“Yes – we have over 1 million women on BigTent now. However, our technology platform for groups is completely gender-neutral. We have attracted groups that are predominately women because they tend to be the community leaders – think moms clubs, schools/PTAs, neighborhoods and kid-oriented groups like sports teams and scouts. Most women are members of multiple community groups and BigTent simplifies life by bringing them all together, which is how we grow. The website is free and easy for groups to use. We make money through unique engagement marketing programs connecting brands with our audience of over a million women in mutually beneficial ways – consumer insights, new product introductions, cause marketing and other interactive campaigns.”
Big Tent has both an Advisory Board and a Community Board. Why did you create both and how do you interact with them?
“The Advisory Board is business-focused and the Community Board is about building successful volunteer-powered communities. It’s important to us to be experts in building thriving communities for many purposes, and bringing that value to our products and members.”
Your career has been so successful. Any advice to other women on how to get ahead?
“I’ve thought about this a lot. For a talk in NYC earlier this year, I characterized 5 life lessons – I tried to describe things that I learned the hard way and/or that I feel really strongly about. Here you go:
1) Nothing happens until somebody sells something (originator is a manure salesman in Minnesota but it also was my father’s mantra) – My father was a visionary who could identify trends and see the future but who grew up in the depression era and hence felt that providing a reliable income for his family was more important than creating the future. Fortunately, his motto for me was “go for it, Donna” and he and my mother gave me the gift of confidence that I could do anything (along with my sweet tooth and big hair). So, sales was king in our home growing up – and I learned that sales is not about offloading goods on unsuspecting consumers but about solving real problems for real people and companies. And the best tool that a sales person has is her ears.
2) Hard work is necessary but not sufficient; you have to ask for it. I learned this the hard way and I bring it up here because women are particularly guilty of excessive humility and the expectation that their talents will be recognized. They won’t always. Make sure you ask for that promotion, raise, responsibility or whatever you feel you have earned.
3) Go big or don’t go. I learned this in my first startup job at Clarify. You’re going to work hard no matter what you do, so make sure that the potential is there and that you really believe in what you are doing. Don’t do it for the money – do it for the passion.
4) It takes two to tango. In building companies, you have to build the market while you build the product. The Field of Dreams strategy doesn’t work: “if you build it, they will come.” Know your customers thoroughly and why they cannot live without what you do.
5) Yoda was right – there is no try – do or do not. This applies to startups – do your homework, run the numbers, but once you commit it takes determination, resourcefulness and sometimes blind faith to succeed. This applies to marriages too. When I met my husband he had a poster that said YES – NO and maybe was in the chasm. His attitude about commitment has proven invaluable as we stick with each other through periods of thick and thin.”
“Those are my top 5 life lessons… so far. I hope they are useful to people. I am happy to share 6 through 397 if anyone’s interested.”
