Brant Howler aka Brant Cooper
It’s my pleasure to introduce friend of the pack, Brant Howler!
Famous for his rants and pure love for the San Diego tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem. This coyote speaks his mind and isn’t worried about ruffling feathers (or fur). A hard strategy for most who strive to be liked by all.
He’s also known for:
- Bringing "entrepreneurial spirit" to enterprises through innovation bootcamps and sprints.
- Ranting about our startup ecosystem.
- Authoring: The Lean Entrepreneur and Disruption Proof.
- You might not know this, but he’s one of the founders of San Diego Tech Coffee and San Diego Startup Week.
We met in 2020 during Startup Month (it was a month back then), years after his legendary article criticizing the San Diego startup scene, posted in 2013. To summarize, this is a piece calling out the startup ecosystem for many of its flaws (and opportunities).
We’ve come a long way since then, and I’d be curious to see if there’s a reflection planned to revisit our progress 10+ years later.
I can’t speak to this personally, as I was still teaching surf lessons on the beach at that point—not very close to our innovation economy… But I did recently reread the comments (clearly, people were fired up) and I loved seeing San Diego legends leaving their thoughts.
Brant sure does have a howl (hence the name), but if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that he deeply cares about our ecosystem. If you’re willing to execute on the advice, he’ll share how to handle uncertainty using techniques like empathy and exploration or thoughts on the concept of finding equilibrium.
I think the rants can sometimes mask this quality.
He once said something that stuck with me: "...[don’t] wait for permission... go and run experiments and come up with data."
He embodies a mindset of movement, prowl, howl, and learn on the go.
At his core, he’s focused on innovation and helping to elevate the San Diego packs around him to be stronger and more fierce, depending on your definition of course.
It’s never easy to go against the grain, and we need more coyotes pushing boundaries, unafraid of the reaction.
Thank you for what you’ve done for our San Diego community.
Howl yeah!
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there are only 2 ways to receive a customized coyote clone:
- Be a fearless advocate for our San Diego tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem
- Invite your pack to leave their dens and join The Social Coyote in the San Diego tech and entrepreneurship community
Get plugged in with the pack here: howl.thesocialcoyote.com
