While the idea is important, I tend to focus mostly on the people pitching them. I give a lot of weight to anyone that I know personally and have worked with. My basic secret sauce in making an investment decision is “would I hire this person to work with them?” And the way I hire people is usually asking myself “Will working with this person make me a better person?”

Whenever I’ve primarily chased opportunities based primarily on how cool the ideas sounded, I’ve never seen the same success as when I’ve based my decision primarily on the person who’s founded the business. So I’ll stick with what works.

What are some new or emerging technologies that you find intriguing as far as creative or artistic potential?

I’ve spent a lot of time with VR during my time at Adobe, and even in the gaming space a bit too, trying to understand if there are ways to use gaming for creativity. I think that there are tremendous opportunities, especially in the realm of teaching people. VR is still pretty
niche, but over the next decade I believe it will be more on the forefront of the creative movement. Gallery space is so expensive, and VR experience can be even better and open up new creative avenues than exist today to artists. I actually personally am a collector of 3D
holograms. I probably have one of the biggest private collections of them in the world. And my hope is that at some point, someone comes up with something that’s a true hologram that can capture depth and movement like those moving portraits in Harry Potter, that can sit on a wall and don’t require any special glasses or lighting to see them. 

How do you stay inspired day-to-day? 

I just love seeing makers fulfilled. Whenever I work on a project, no matter what it is, no matter how small, I get such an intense feeling of fulfillment when I’m done that can carry me for weeks. So knowing we’re providing that feeling for other creators - whether it's at Worth1000,
Aviary, Adobe or Shapeways - is fulfilling for me. Enabling that passion, that’s my passion. 

What’s the most recent amazing book you’ve read?

I’m currently reading THE SHINING by Stephen King. I saw a trailer for Dr Sleep, the sequel to THE SHINING, and it brought back so much nostalgia I had to go reread it. So good!

For founders that are looking to build creative and collaborative platforms, services or companies, what are some words of wisdom you’d want to share?

Be super open. Share your idea with literally everyone, especially people in your target market. Get their feedback on whether it's a need-to-have, not a nice-to-have. Don’t keep your idea to yourself and hide behind NDAs. Secrecy at the ideation stage is almost always nonsense. Success is all about the execution.

How can we best stay up-to-date with you?

You can follow me on Twitter @avimuchnick.

hey Chris! I was so excited when Victoria told me you were one of the founders of Cake. I love the simplicity of the platform! Your company lunches at Smugmug were an inspiration for us to do the same at Aviary. Regards to Don!