Entrepreneur's secret weapon: Curiosity

This week's Creative Collision is with Paul Budnitz, founder of Budnitz Bicycles. He previously launched Kidrobot, a producer and retailer of designer toys, and is about to launch a new venture, Ello.co, a new social network without ads.

RICH NADWORNY: Are you inspired to innovate to make things better that disturb or bug you for some reason, like bikes or social networks?

PAUL BUDNITZ: I'm not sure I'd phrase it as there are things that are bugging me as much as that I see things that I wish were better. I fall in love with things and I wish they could be made as beautiful and wonderful and fantastic as they possibly could be. I think that is, in general, the artistic drive: the impossible task of trying to make our world perfect.

That's how Budnitz bikes came to be. I just wanted to make the perfect bicycle because I couldn't find it.

RN: Do most of your innovative enterprises come from your having a background in a wide variety of fields, like coding, art and film making?

PB: My advantage is that I know a whole lot about a bunch of different things so that I can work with people who are great at those things and to be able to communicate well with them.

It helps that I do things. As I was getting into the bike business, I went to every bicycle shop and I rode every bicycle made, expensive ones and cheap ones. Everyone knew me in all of the shops. And they all knew, after a while, that I wasn't going to buy anything. I would walk in there and ask really stupid questions. I'd go in and say "What's that part called?" or "What makes a good crank?" and people would tell me.

I kept on going in and asking stupid and innocent questions even when I kind of knew the answers. I ended up surprising a lot of those people when I finally showed up owning a bicycle company. They were highly skeptical, to say the least. Then they'd ride one of my Budnitz bikes and say, "This is amazing!"

RN: You're a serial maker. Why are you in Vermont?

The work ethic here is strong. People seem to be always doing more than one thing. It's nice that there's less specialization than you see in the big cities where people are just one thing. In the city, I had a bookkeeper. Here in Vermont, I have a bookkeeper who also has a maple farm.

I think Vermont brand needs a little shining up. I think the brands of farms, maple syrup and folksy stuff actually inhibits some new things from happening. When I was raising money for Budnitz Bicycles, I had a hard time raising money for a company in Vermont. People would say "You're doing what in Vermont? Well, we don't invest outside of the cities." I think that's a branding issue, actually. There are small cities, like Boulder, CO, where we used to live, where you can start a high-tech company and investors won't even blink.

The truth of the matter is that there is a lot of innovation and tech and fun new products going on here, more than in some of those other places.

RN: You're about to launch Ello.co, a new social media network. Are you just going to keep on creating companies?

PB: When I was a kid, I just wanted other kids to go out and play and make things with me. That didn't always happen and it was sometimes disappointing. Now that I'm an adult, I'm the same way: I want people to play with me, to make things with me. My ventures are a way of doing that, through innovation, design and business. I love it.

Rich Nadworny is principal at Empatico in Burlington. Connect with Rich at www.empatico.us