But we do live in a fortunate place and time, and I do believe that it is a useful exercise to spend some time and look over where you are taking your life. I’ve watched televison and read a lot of blog postings and books that encourage you to “do what you love” or to “find your passion”. But what if you don’t know what your passion is? How can you figure out what you love to do?
Technorati tags: life, entrepreneurship
Has the concept of “eight-minute speed dating” invaded the world of Internet startups? No, but commoditized hardware and open-source software have.
Kostello is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs who are experiencing first hand how much faster and cheaper launching a company is today, compared with even five years ago, thanks to the ever-decreasing cost of hardware and steady improvements in open-source software.
BD4D:
Promote a Cause – A great way to make the world a better place, while also promoting yourself, is to help a worthy cause. Find something you’re passionate about changing and create a web site about it. A great example of this is “G8 Reboot” (g8reboot.net). The founder, Gareth Knight, wanted to help raise awareness about the G8 summit so he created this site. In addition to doing a good thing, he also became fairly well known for it, which in turn will bring in work.
Bernard Moon (via The Startup Biz:
Partner with people you trust. My first piece of advice for any budding entrepreneur, and one I always overstate is, “Trust is essential.” If you have any doubts about a potential partner, clear the air or steer clear completely. As John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers puts it, “You must ask, ‘Are these the people I want to be in trouble with for the next 5, 10, 15 years of my life?’ Because as you build a new business, one thing’s for sure: You will get into trouble.”
Technorati tags: team, leadership, startup
Mike Roberts (via Jeff Nolan):
New Business: Is it inevitable that founders will not be able to go the distance?
Noam Wasserman: Not inevitable, but probable. We teach a case in our first-year entrepreneurship course on a Silicon Valley VC firm called Onset Ventures, which lays out a “test” for all entrepreneurs it considers backing. It’s called the “Rich versus King” test. It gets to this essential trade-off around what drives an entrepreneur: Is it the need to control the company (that is, to be King), or is it the drive for success, particularly financial success, which may require that the entrepreneur step aside once certain business milestones have been reached? Onset does not like to invest in founders who “want to be King” out of concern that they will not want to be replaced if such a step is required in order for the company to be successful.
Technorati tags: founders, leadership, startup, vc
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to 650:
Given the constraints of the right type of personality, geographic location, cultural understanding and network; there were very few people who could fit that criteria and launch successful companies.
Well, SEM changed all that. Entrepreneurs from all over the world could build a website, cheaply acquire customers, and build a solid business without all that extraneous stuff. (given the right type of web business of-course) They could be anywhere, know almost no body and drive traffic to their business. All they have to learn is how to buy clicks, signup for or launch affiliate programs, and optimize their website for natural search – and all that information can be learned on the web.
Finally, there’s that concept of “asymmetric information“. That is when parties on one side of the market have much better information than those on the other side. The greater the difference between the information a buyer and seller perceives about a product, the greater the potential for profit. That is, if you try to sellsoftware built by software professionals to other similar software professional, it is more likely they’ll pay next to nothing for it. Therefore, you should never target an audience just like yourself. Ever wonder why open source software tends to be free?
Derek Sivers (via Paul Kedrosky):
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000To make a business, you need to multiply the two.
The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.
The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
My cousin is unbelievably organized. She organizes people’s closets for fun. About a year ago I told her she should start a business. And this week she told me she has her first customer. She thanked me because it didn’t occur to her to make a living as an organizer, but I am betting she will be a great success.
Technorati tags: entrepreneurship
Vesting, unlike no-shop which I blogged about last week here, is one of the most important provisions of a term sheet. Vesting is about who owns the company; it is about what happens when founders leave; it is about control. The no-shop is gone when the deal is closed. Initial vesting is with you for the first four years of a company’s life. Initial vesting is a BFD.
Technorati tags: vc, equity, entrepreneurship, startup
Ken Dyck 