All about entrepreneurs
This list of questions from Unusual Ventures is a great “gut check” to test if you’re ready to turn an idea into something concrete. Questions to ask yourself Questions to ask your potential co-founder(s) Questions to ask about your product/market These questions help clarify your commitment to the tough ride you will signing up for if you…
Original by Stuart Skorman. Edited for use in this blog about Mentors in Entrepreneurship. Finding a mentor is the best way to learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Mentors can teach you the ins and outs of a business and be helpful role models. Consider these tips: Know you need a mentor. The more…
By AMY WILKINSON What makes some people stand out, even in an extraordinary crowd? Stanford Graduate School of Businesses lecturer Amy Wilkinson interviewed over 200 of the world’s top entrepreneurs to find out. 1. 1:28 Spots the gaps. Example; 2:02 Under armour. 2. 3:33 Drive for daylight. Example; 4:09 Airbnb. 3. 5:42 Fly the ODDA…
1. Contacts Your current work environment probably gives you immediate access to lots of people (prospective customers, experts, support). You lose some of this when you quit. 2. Cash flow Every entrepreneur is optimistic; your business will take twice as long as you think to become profitable. Keep the job cash coming in, even if…
Here are some great remote learning resources. Startup School for Future Founders A free, 6-week online course for aspiring startup founders.Learn how to start a company with help from the world’s best accelerator – Y Combinator. https://www.startupschool.org If you are thinking about a startup, not now, in the future try this one: https://www.startupschool.org/future-founders Startup Playbook Written by Sam Altman,…
This is an older post but still valid today, a good lesson on what NOT to do. 1) Multiply big numbers by 1 percent. Entrepreneurs always ask, say, how hard can it be to get 1 percent of the cans of dog food sold per day? I hear plans along these lines every day. Huge…
These are great videos to get you started on the “ideation” process and how to best evaluate if you are on the right track.
These are quick videos on the traits of great startup founders.
This is a great lecture worth watching from Wharton. It’s 48 minutes long but still pretty condensed and up to the minute. Other important questions are when to write a full blown business plan and why write a business plan but when you do have to have one this will show you how. Another key…
You may or may not have heard of the important term “product market fit”. It is quite literal, and it’s used widely in the startup world as a key part of the development cycle of a new business idea. Once you understand and seek “product market fit” your business will have a far greater chance…
From the book: “So you want to be an entrepreneur” by Jon Gillespie-Brown. There are certain qualities common to many Entrepreneurs. It’s safe to say that most successful Entrepreneurs possess at least some, and probably the majority, of these characteristics. This is not exclusive to entrepreneurship. If you want to be successful in anything you…
I really, really like this set of sessions…they are like gold and that’s from a guy who has been doing this for 30 years. Its hard to get stuff so well done and condensed, and that’s what I like, its covers all the ground and does so in really great detail (but not too much).…
Like most people I hate writing business plans, I want to get on with the business at hand rather than keep writing and re-writing lots of words about what I plan to do! This must also be true for many investors too, as they don’t enjoy reading them, they prefer a pitch or PowerPoint! However,…
Writing a good and punchy “elevator pitch” is way harder than most people think. Plus I find that I really need to teach this skill a lot with my Stanford and UC Berkeley MBA’s to help them both with distilling their ideas, perfecting their business plans and finally pitching VCs – so this skill turns…
If you are making any form of presentation you will benefit from these quick tips. Get the content and flow right: First, make the presentation flow correctly – as most presentations are trying to convince someone of something, I tend to use the old A-I-D-A (a 1950s acronym for Attention/Interest/Desire/Action) system to build to a…