Meet Peter Borum: he’s the cofounder and CEO of Reelio, and a millennial. His company deals with the “art and science” of influencer marketing, which is trusted by brands like Target, Visa, Clinique, and others. Specifically, they have a mission to help online video creators and brands work together more effectively.
But before launching the company, Borum dabbled heavily in computer science and technology, even earning a Music, Science and Technology degree at Stanford. He credits much of his success in business to that background in technology. In this article, he shares why.
Pexels.com
A CS background allows you to look at the world through a different lens
“Having a CS background equips you with a different kind of way of looking at the world,” says Borum. He brings up a quote from Arthur C. Clarke, who famously said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
That quote, Borum explains, accurately reflects many people’s relationship with technology. Computer programs and web pages “just work,” even though many people have no idea why. “It may sound silly to say,” Borum continues, “but in the same vein of what Clarke was describing, having an understanding of and mastery over that technology almost gives you magical powers. You can just do some things yourself that most people can't.”
Increased problem-solving abilities - seeing solutions to problems others may not
A different way of seeing the world often also means a different approach to solving problems, Borum says. “Having a strong foundation in CS allows you to also see options for changing or improving upon things that others see as more or less fixed.”
It is exactly this that led Borum to develop Reelio: “The process by which most companies were creating branded content ... was very manual. It was so clearly suboptimal from our perspective, and some of the paths to improving upon it were fairly obvious. Those insights would not have been possible without a background in CS.”
Allows you to automate tasks and procedures and save valuable employee time
“Any time I see members of our team getting bogged down in repeatable processes that I know a computer could do better and faster than a person, I try to automate it,” Borum explains. “For example, I have automated a lot of the reporting of business metrics that we need to understand the health of our business by automatically pulling and processing data from a number of different applications.”
Acts as an outlet for creativity
Since Borum’s major heavily featured music, it’s no surprise that he also values the artistic side of life. “What I love about both programming and music is that they enable you to build incredibly creative, complex, and beneficial things seemingly from thin air -- no additional materials required, just your brain and a keyboard in front of you.”
Programming and music also both allow for a deep, single-minded immersion in the creative process. “They require you to be deeply focused and in the moment for everything to work well, and I find that state of flow to be immensely satisfying.”
Improves communication across all levels.
“I think that two of the most important things in business are communication and the ability to inspire confidence in your employees, investors, and end users,” Borum says. How does computer science tie in? “Being able to translate strategic objectives into language that both the business team and the engineering team can understand is really helpful to foster good communication. Being able to speak with confidence on the details of both business and engineering considerations also helps to inspire confidence."
Borum concludes our interview by noting that different things work for different people. “There are many incredible business leaders who don't know the first thing about computer programming, so I don't believe it is a prerequisite to success,” he says. “But I do believe it has been invaluable for me.”
