Hugh Molotsi

Men’s restrooms at movie theaters might be the most biologically hazardous cesspools you may ever have the misfortune of experiencing. How does this happen? Do men somehow revert to their prehistoric dispositions? Does the lunar cycle impair accurate aim? Or are men just messy creatures? Here’s my explanation: In the morning, the janitor cleans up the restroom and makes it a welcoming place to empty the bladder. But at some point in the day, one distracted patron accidentally leaves a few droplets on the side of the urinal as he’s finishing up. The next patron comes along and before commencing his business notices the droplets on the floor. Not wanting to step on the mess, he positions himself a little bit further than optimal distance from the urinal all but guaranteeing he makes a bigger mess when he’s done. The next patron sees this bigger mess and positions himself even further away also contributing to the growing mess. The pattern continues until by the end o...

Intuit CEO Brad Smith, General Counsel Laura Fennell and I spoke at the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco to share lessons we've learned applying lean startup principles at Intuit (see the video below). To learn  more about the Minimum Viable Products Intuit employees are launching, visit Intuit Labs . Also visit  Innovation at Intuit  to learn more about our culture of innovation.  Finally, check out SparkRent , one of our graduate applications we're very proud of.

I had the pleasure this week of traveling to Ukraine to attend the launch of Bionic University.  " BIONIC University is an open corporate university focused on tech education, soft skills and entrepreneurship education in Ukraine, serving as a social escalator for young talents and as a source of qualified workforce for the IT industry."  The university is part of a larger project, the Bionic Hill Innovation Park , which will combine the university, commercial and residential space to create an IT hub to help spur growth of the IT sector in Ukraine (Ukraine is one of the top producers of engineering university graduates in the world).  The first buildings of the Innovation Park will open in 2015. See news footage from the launch event.  Below are photos from launch day (Friday September 27th): Meeting Volodymyr Semynozhenko, Chair of the Parliament Committee on Sciences and Technology. Outside the cabinet offices with (L-R): Roman Popad...

I had the pleasure of attending the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative Hult Prize Dinner in New York by invitation of the Hult International Business School .  The Hult San Francisco team created Pulse which was one of six finalists (out of over 150 entrants from business schools around the globe) competing for the $1 million prize.  Pulse will be working with Intuit's txtWeb platform. The winner this year was Aspire , created by students from McGill University in Canada. Here are photos from the event: The Pulse team rehearses on stage. Yours truly. Pulse team members Charles Ojei and Saul Minkoff with Bill O'Connor. Pulse team members Niketa Malhotra and Charles Ojei. President Clinton announces the winner. Yours truly with Hult professors Mike Grandinetti and Larry Louie.

The Fresh Lifelines for Youth Board held our annual dinner tonight. Back row: Hugh Molotsi, Andrew Niklaus (Associate Director), Dick Watts (guest), Cheryl Young, Christa Gannone (Executive Director), Judge Jim Emerson; Front row: Aila Malik (Director of Strategy and Growth), Lisa Clark (Director of Development), Kai Chen, Carol Dressler, Randee Fenner (former board member), Azar Khansari, Mark Lazar (former board member), and Donna Petkanics. Sadly, Cheryl Young's term on the board has come to an end.  Our gratitude for Cheryl's contributions is immeasurable.  Here she is with a gift of art specially created for her by a former FLY client. ED Christa Gannon with former and current board presidents Mark Lazar and yours truly.

I recently enjoyed the privilege of being part of an extraordinary event: UnGrounded , a “hackathon in the sky” where British Airways brought together a group of over 100 innovators to develop solutions addressing the global misalignment of STEM talent.  We were divided into four teams: Team Altitude (Fostering Women in STEM), Team Ground Control (Growing STEM in Emerging Economies), Team Wingspan (Expanding STEM), and Team Transatlantic (Meeting US Demand for STEM Talent Globally).  I was part of Team Ground Control. The following are highlights from the experience. Day 1 – Wednesday June 12 th , 2013) We gathered at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco for an orientation where we heard welcome speeches from various luminaries including British Airways EVP Simon Talling-Smith (watch here ), California Lieutenant-Governor Gavin Newsom (watch here ) and British Counsel-General in San Francisco Priya Guha.   Some guidance we were given: There’s no silver bul...

I had the pleasure of speaking at the JUMP! Summit on Global Entrepreneurship held by the Hult Venture Group (business students from the Hult International Business School ).  My talk is a "fireside chat" with Mike  Grandinetti about innovation at Intuit and how we're applying lean startup techniques.

“It can’t be done.” “It’s not feasible.” “It’s too difficult.” “It’s not possible.” These and other similar naysayer phrases have no place in the life of an innovator. The act of innovation by definition requires that we tackle big, unsolved problems in novel ways. Successful innovation is the primary driver of growth. “The question of our times is not just, ‘Can we build a product?;’ it’s ‘Should we build it?’” – Eric Ries We cherish the opportunity to take on challenges that others have deemed too difficult or impossible. Furthermore, in software, there is almost nothing that is impossible. It comes down to is balancing risk and effort with opportunity cost. “Don’t find fault; find a remedy.” – Henry Ford If you aspire to be accretive to innovation, you don’t want to be the naysayer. You may think it’s helpful to call out all the pitfalls of a proposed solution, but it’s more valuable to propose suggestions that make the proposed solution even better. ...

I had the pleasure today to talk to students at PES Institute of Technology in Bangalore about Intuit's approach to innovation.  It was my first time visiting an Indian university campus and I enjoyed their hospitality and engaging with the students who asked great questions.