Introduction

The first thing I noticed about Jebbit co-founders Jonathan Lacoste and Tom Coburn was their maturity and dedication to their business despite looking so young. Both are extremely bright with high emotional intelligence. Jonathan could have been a young Brad Pitt or an earnest-looking Neil Armstrong, tall in stature with an easy-going smile. Tom might have been coming over on a Friday night to play video games. In fact, on Jebbit’s site, Tom’s bio picture features him holding up his favorite game, Settlers of Catan, which he states he “will play for hours.”

They were young, but they were fierce.

Underneath their youthful exuberance was a mature sensibility. I wondered where this aura of being “older” came from and learned that Jonathan had been a nationally ranked ice hockey goaltender—and the youngest goaltender to win a game in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) at the age of sixteen.

Both gentlemen took a risky plunge, even for founders. The one-time classmates dropped out of Boston College to start Jebbit in 2012. Both would become founders of the first-ever declared data SaaS platform. CNBC recognized Jebbit as one of the top 25 most promising companies in the world.1 Forbes put both co-founders on its 30 Under 30 list, and the company would later attract more than $20 million in investor funding.

Still, there was something wise in these young founders. In one media interview, Jonathan was asked what advice he would give his 20-year-old self. Jonathan responded: “Be more patient. Be more thankful.” He didn’t have to go back that far—his “twenty-year-old self” had been around for just five years at that point.