Ypulse Interview: Jun Loayza, Future Delivery

Today’s Ypulse Interview is with Jun Loayza, Founder and CMO of Future Delivery. Jun will be appearing on our  Totally Wired Youth Entrepreneur panel at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup event. Check out our interview for a sneak peek of the insight you can glean from Jun and his fellow successful Gen Y entrepreneurs and register today!

Ypulse: Where did the idea for Future Delivery come from?

Jun Loayza: It came about when my business parter Yu-kai Chou and I were looking for a way to have fun and to be productive at the same time, and we realized that there are few outlets online or even in life that allow you to do that.

Our goal as a company was to develop fun and productive spaces for Millennials at work.

In August of 2008 we launched FD Career. A real-life role playing game. In typical role-playing games you go around and you slay demons and then you level up and you get more weapons. We created FD career where as you get a new internship, a higher GPA, etc. you level up on the website…you can compare yourself to your peers.

Now we’re working on Viralogy where you’re comparing people based on their online influence. We aggregate their blog subscribers, Twitter followers etc. to give a score.

YP: What would be the #1 myth you’d want to debunk about Gen Yers in the workplace? What would be a more accurate description?

JL: As far as what Gen X probably thinks of Gen Y… what I’ve been reading a lot online is about the whole entitlement thing. We don’t like to pay our dues. I encompass that to a tee. I worked as a consultant for 3 months and realized that wasn’t for me.

A lot of the myths about entitlement and that we believe we need more are true. Even if you’re not a social media person, I have a lot of friends who don’t have a clue what blogs are, who are jumping ship pretty quickly from their jobs.

So as far as debunking myths, I can really only confirm them.

[As far as where these qualities come from] since we have such an easy way to spread information, we have a much easier platform for sharing our stories. I think that would be one major thing. So many Gen Yers are doing it. And the ones who do are writing a blog and tweeting about it. Secondly, I talked to some Gen Xer about what it was like when he first got into the job market. Even though my parents told me the same thing: to work hard, get a job, get your MBA and then one day maybe you can start your company, I didn’t listen. He’s [the Gen Xer] been with his company for 16 years. The main differences were growing up with technology. It’s just conditioning from very early stages, we can get answers.

We know much more than we actually do because there is so much information available to us [online], and we are all connected. All of that in total is telling us you don’t have to pay your dues.

YP: Any quick tips for young entrepreneurs who want to use a personal blog to promote their personal brand or business?

JL: Definitely a lot to advise on that. Everyone is going to advise you to start a blog, which is good. When I first started my blog, I was a little naive about how much of a time commitment it was, and what I should be writing about to build influence. In order to build your blog influence, there should be a topic you should really focus on, hone in on that niche.

Don’t just comment on random people’s blogs, which is what a lot of people will tell you. Get a Google Reader and focus on one topic and one blog. Whether it’s Guy Kawasaki, who is moderating our panel at the Mashup, or Tim Ferris focus on that person for that month. Otherwise it can be overwhelming. Every time that person posts a blog post leave a comment, that adds value to their post, that grows it.

YP: What advice would you give to Gen Y entrepreneurs starting out today? What steps would you take if you were starting now?

JL: If I was first starting out I would not leave my corporate job so hastily. I would first secure a job that was able to fund my life. To fund my life I had to move back home, which is not something every Millennial can do. I would have definitely worked on my start up part time. Funding was also really hard to get for a first-time startup.

We spent a good five months researching and building out a business plan. Potential investors would come back to us, “Great idea but come to us when you finish the product and generate some traction.” We were naive thinking we could get funding for our ideas, our revenue, our team and our business plan. It’s the scrappy entrepreneur who can start with their own funding who will be successful.

In summary, the best advice: Young entrepreneurs should not abandon their companies completely. Use the money you’re making at your full-time job to fund your start-up. Work from 7 p.m. - 2 a.m. at night. Do it for however long you need to. Sacrifice your time with your friends and family.

More on Jun

SoCal native Jun is the founder and CMO of Future Delivery, where he is building Viralogy, a place for people to discover and rate new and exciting personal blogs. He is the host of Awesome Bloggers, where he interviews the most interesting bloggers in the community, is a contributor for several blogs including Mashable, and works closely with a VC firm. His own blog, Become a Young Successful Entrepreneur, gives an unfiltered view of the startup life so that aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from his successes and mistakes. Jun graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics and philosophy.