Jonathan Bingham: Skater, Philanthropist and CEO of Janeiro Digital (#61)

Our Guest Today: Jonathan Bingham

Jonathan Bingham (@jwbingham ) is the CEO of Janeiro Digital (@janeirodigital), “a team of creative problem solvers, committed to leveraging digital expertise for the benefit of businesses across all verticals.”

When I first set foot in Janeiro Digital in Boston MA, I noticed a giant mural that reads RADD (Research, Analysis, Design and Development). The slightly faded paint around the characters reminded me of an old school skatepark.  Jonathan walked over and greeted me with a smile. He wore casual skater clothing from head to toe, looking supremely confident and comfortable. We sat down on the couch in front of RADD and began to talk non-stop about skateboarding.

This podcast is an opportunity for me learn directly from Jonathan on the business side of things (plus a little more skating and sailing as candy for you guys). Jonathan shared his management philosophy as the CEO at Janeiro from its infancy 9 years ago to today, a thriving community of nerds (they are proud of that). These creators hustle everyday to try new things, invent solutions that did not exist before, fail fast (but not permanently), assess risks, get up and do it again. They are a diverse group of passionate people who believe in the company and its culture, created by Jonathan and his brother Justin.

Besides work, Jonathan, his wife Lily and all the employees at Janeiro are supporters for Horizons for Homeless Children.  They are running a second fundraiser this year in Boston on June 2nd (6-9pm) .  The event will be located at the Alibi Bar inside the Liberty Hotel. Last year, Jonathan and his team raised $55K in one day. They hope to beat that number and you are welcome to join in.

Questions We Asked:

• What is Janerio Digital’s methodology and how do they standout from the crowd? (Boston is a small town filled with successful tech companies.)
• Why is it so important for Jonathan to be self sufficient? What does it mean in the greater context of running his company?
• Jonathan believes in “Do good work, with good people, for good clients” and servicing clients that align with the company’s vision.
• Jonathan shares his origin story as a skater and and how he influenced his entire family (including his wife and their youngest son who’s only 1-year old to be actively skating)
• Skaters embrace failures and risks, plus they have very high tolerance for pain – Does this translate to startup and entrepreneurship somehow?
• Most family businesses fail quickly – how does Jonathan manage to successfully partner with his own brother for nearly 20 years?
• How to grow an existing company and what’s involved?
• Jonathan speaks to Agile, Scrum and Rapid Prototyping methodologies
• How does Janeiro Digital identify too many vs. too few failures while coming up with possible solutions and options for clients?
• What is it like to work with several Fortune 50 companies?
• A Day in the Life of Jonathan Bingham (including morning routines and his favorite book “Inside the Tornado”)
• Two mentors (Marijean Lauzier and Paul Santinelli) for Jonathan to always turn to for advice and inspiration
• To close, Jonathan tells us about his sailing story and spending two weeks on water, non-stop

To learn more about Jonathan Bingham and his company Janeiro Digital, please visit their website at www.janeirodigital.com/ and follow them on Twitter @janeirodigital.

BONUS (The Skater Family!):

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