Jon Mills: The Man Behind Motionloft

determined to continue to grow and
expand the business. He’s truly fascinated
by numbers and how this
data can be used to give a new insight
about the way people move in
different cities. Motionloft already
has sensors up in Chicago, Dallas,
Pittsburgh, Miami, New York, and
San Francisco, but they hope other
cities are added soon so they can
start analyzing the numbers: “So far
we’ve seen some crazy things from
our data that I don’t think anyone
has actually known before” (Mills).
Upon our first meeting, I had no
clue what to expect. He was Jon
Mills, CEO of Motionloft, and that
was enough to make for a frantic
car ride up to San Francisco. I stood
outside the glass doors of 550 15th
street, struggling to hold on to numerous
cameras and lighting equipment
while anxiously awaiting the
descending elevator. Out came Jon,
your average young techie looking
guy wearing dark blue jeans and a
gray zip-up, reminiscent of the familiar
Silicon Valley “googlites” here
in Mountain View. Definitely not
the image most people would visualize
as a CEO of an up and coming
startup company. I was greeted
with a friendly stubbled smile as
I awkwardly reached out to shake
with the wrong hand. We entered
a spacious building with desktops
of computers at every corner and
boxes filled with top secret software
parts. Despite the fancy Macs and
high tech equipment, this was not
your run of the mill workplace. It
looked more like a chill out space
decked out with artsy posters and a
flat screen T.V. “Oh we’re just hangin’
out,” Jon said when I asked what he
was up to. Sure enough, I could hear
Chris Rock stand-up emanating
in the next room with Jon’s friends
kicked back on the couch, red plastic
cups scattered on the coffee table
as evidence of the night before.
Jon takes pride in the fact that his
team can be both laid back and
productive: “It’s great to be excited
about [the job] but you really have
to dig your head in. Most of our
people wear headphones like half
the day because they’re working and
concentrating on something so hard
that once 6 o’clock comes around,
everyone’s relieved that they got that
much done” (Mills). There’s something
to be said about the way Jon
chooses to organize his business.
Being CEO, he doesn’t think of himself
as being in charge of everyone:
“I think of the people here as more
of a team then a leadership, we don’t
really have a big hierarchy...we try to
keep it pretty flat, it keeps everyone
working together and moving forward
instead of politics becoming
the main problem” (Mills). This style
of business management isn’t new to
the Bay Area, but it is certainly an
unexplored approach for many businesses
in other parts of the country.
Jon feels that the best way to build a
strong team is to actually be a part
of it himself. He isn’t in some separate
office away from the rest of the
team. He literally sits side by side
with them, making himself completely
open to any ideas as well as
some occasional light hearted joking
around. In a world where it’s typical
for employees to never even see the
CEO they’re working for, much less
pass ideas through them, it’s interesting
to observe Jon’s unique framework.
Everyone has their own idea
of how a business should be run, but
this casual approach is becoming
increasingly popular in companies
like Motionloft that strive for creativity
and innovation at its fullest
extent. “People feel more comfortable
in opening up about ideas that
they have, and they’re more energetic
in the way that they think.
They think outside the box if they’re
not told to conform in some way”
(Mills). The struggle to keep the balance
between having fun and taking
work seriously is something Jon has
to deal with when recruiting new
members. Its true that people in a
more laid back environment tend
to not take things as seriously as
they should, “But that’s not all that
bad,” Jon says, “we can fix that with
a couple strongly worded e-mails.”
Growing up in a small town in Ohio,
Jon always felt so limited in what he
could do. He claimed you were either
too young to be taken seriously
or no one understood what you
were really trying to do. He hopes
this lack of advanced technological
activity will eventually change for
small towns like the one he grew
up in, but is completely content
with how his journey forward has
brought him where he is today: “It
takes an atmosphere like San Francisco
to kinda be motivated everyday,
to know that you’re working
on something that everybody else
believes in just as much as you do”
(Mills). In elementary school, Jon
was not like other kids his age. He
was intrigued by the world of business,
eager to learn about the dynamics
and technicality of the economy.
Jon distinctly remembers doing
a stock market report in second
grade, “I was the biggest nerd ever...I
was learning to trade stock at
like 8 years old” (Mills) When every
other kid was preoccupied with
Legos and video games, Jon was
immersed in the world of business
and technology. In high school, he
found a strong connection with his
computer teacher. She encouraged
him to pursue his real interests and
not be afraid to let them show, regardless
of what other students may
think. Jon remembers his name always
being called on the intercom
between classes to “report to the
computer room immediately” and
having to help fix any computer
problems. He even recalls a picture
in his yearbook which shows him
smiling next to a computer and inserting
a CD that reads ‘Jon to the
Rescue.’ He wouldn’t describe himself
as one of the popular kids, but
jokingly admits that with a small
class of fifty students, there wasn’t
much popularity to go around.
Jon believes his father is the driving
force behind his life and accomplishments.
He remembers his dad
suddenly becoming very ill and
having to stay home everyday as a
result. He painstakingly recounts
his father’s harmful habits; heavy
smoking, drinking, and working
more than 40 hours per week. It
was inevitable that his deteriorating
health would eventually catch up to
his fast paced lifestyle. Before Jon’s