Tiny Logic - a chat with Adam Garrett-Clark

Meet Adam Garrett-Clark of Tiny Logic, a tiny house logistics consulting firm that specializes in off-grid energy and water systems, permitting paths, community design and property management of this potent emerging housing form. Tiny Logic’s mission is to facilitate the installation of tiny homes in every nook and cranny of the Bay Area. Adam, an alumnus of our Pivot to Product accelertor program, shares his experience of being an entrepreneur and how he is making strides towards his goals.

When did you know you wanted to become an entrepreneur?

I was working as an independent contractor as a pedicab driver in SF waterfront in my mid twenties. I was essentially running my own small business, keeping spreadsheets, making my own hours. I had already started a magazine in Leon Nicaragua a few years before that, but this is when it really clicked for me that being an entrepreneur was an intrinsic part of my DNA. I began to think very seriously about what type of business I wanted to do. I went through a lot of weird ideas and prototypes, flip up sunglasses, an advertising scheme for commuter cyclists, and somewhere in that time I learned the wisdom that strong ideas and organizations take time to build and so you better pick an area or focus that will have meaning for you for many years to come, because it may very well take that long. Affordable housing for me, and specifically coming across the concept of a home that can move was when I realized that I could spend my lifetime on this and feel really good about it when I’m signing off.

What motivates you?

I think a lot about my Mom, who has struggled to find affordable housing for nearly a decade now. Ultimately, she had to move out of state to find housing but was never able to get ahead, and never really found a place where she could call home for very long, despite working hard and playing the life game the way we’re all told to play it. She’s like so many other people who our strange system has no answer for. I’m motivated to see her settled in a comfortable home that she can grow old in and to remove that burden of stress. I really believe that Housing is one of those things that if you focus on getting right, so many other aspects of life for a person, for a society, get better. Housing is a potent lever for improving the human experience for everyone, and thinking about that in relation to my mother’s story is deeply motivating.

What has been your biggest "a-ha" moment?

That latest A-Ha moment that has stuck with me has been the realization that everything that matters in the human world boils down to one word: TRUST. Good functional businesses, organizations, systems, communities are ones that have high amounts of trust within them. Trust is the glue that holds everything together. Without it, everything falls apart. It's liberating to realize you can simplify all the complexity of everything you are doing into that one concept. The overarching game I am playing is always how to design for, generate and maintain trust within everything I do.

What advice would you give to someone just starting a business?

Get rock solid on accounting principles, creating and reading financial statements as one of your first steps. If you are grounded in the numbers of your business it frees you to be creative and experiment. Not having that step will cascade into complications in many other elements of operating your business over time.

How would you describe your experience with the product lab accelerator? What was your biggest takeaway from the program?

Before entering the Pivot to Product Program, I had listened to a lot of business podcasts to better understand the logistics that go into building a product and launching a new business. While they were all very interesting, the basic flow of what to do and when was easily lost, and I needed more clear direction. The accelerator meetings clarified the basic flow of designing a product and developing a pitch. My cohort of entrepreneurs were a great resource and venue for bouncing ideas off one another and receiving immediate feedback. The program additionally matched me with an expert coach for 1-1 advising, and my sessions with my coach, Ari Takata-Vasquez, have been incredibly effective. Stay tuned for an exciting project in the works with the city of Oakland!

And just for fun…if you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

I’ll take the superpower of Hyper Empathy please. I’d like to be able to read everyone’s mind I come across, know their backstory, understand what their motivations are, what sets them off. If I had that power I could make a lot of money on the poker table, but more importantly I’d have the best working relationships, interactions, and negotiations with the people I come across possible.