Ask Russ Leatherman

Q How do you convince a staid industry to adopt new technologies?

Adam Lavine CEO Funmobility Pleasanton, California

You can't base your pitch on the fact that you have something new or innovative. People at big companies don't care about that; they care about not being yelled at by their bosses. It's also hard because when you run a start-up, you're usually asking for such small amounts of money that it's not worth anyone's time to meet with you. When we were trying to sign up studios to advertise on Moviefone, which was a new idea at the time, we were talking about hundreds of dollars to people whose budgets were in the millions.

But in every industry there's a maverick--a crazy dude who's willing to take a risk, someone who actually is looking for the next great thing. Ours was John Butkovich, ...