When you’re building a company from nothing, you need to be aware of the skills and expertise you lack. This may seem like a heavy focus on the negative, but if you’re not aware of your weaknesses, you won’t know what type of people you need to bring onto your team in order to grow your venture.
When Steve Jobs tasked his team with building the iPod, he continuously reminded them to “stay beginners” to treat your interactions with the device as if it was the first time. This meant not to assume a consumer would know how to work a certain aspect of the device, or that he or she would instinctively know how to navigate from one area to another. The smallest details mattered.
Whether it’s student debt or lack of credibility, the Millennial generation faces some hurdles in order to thrive in the startup world. We took to Twitter, with the help of our special guest the U.S. Small Business Administration (@SBAgov), to discuss with others the opportunities and challenges for Millennial entrepreneurs.
Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the execution of that idea is another thing altogether. Those of the millennial generation are coming up with more and more idea, but once they have an idea for a business, they need to know what to do next.
These days, meetups and networking events pop up on every street corner in every city. This is great for entrepreneurs who are encouraged to get out there, meet people and find new customers and fans. But how do you actually close a deal at one of these events?
When companies think about assets, intellectual property ranks high on the list of priorities. Still, the biggest questions can be what to protect and when to protect it.
In the world of entrepreneurship, there are plenty of missteps and mistakes on the way to creating a thriving venture, but there is one mistake you can put an end to today–getting your market size wrong.
At this point in your “marathon,” January is coming to a close and you are feeling tired. In a real marathon, this is where bad habits can re-emerge. You think “I’ll just slow down for a mile and then speed up again” or “I don’t really belong in this group of runners.” Don’t let that happen. Instead, lock in your gains.
Chasing an entrepreneurial dream can be an all-consuming effort. Particularly in those crucial early days of a startup, founders seem to eat, sleep and breathe their businesses. But this heads-down mode is not without its drawbacks, one of which is neglecting to stay up on current events—particularly the happenings that can impact the entrepreneurs who are inadvertently paying no attention to them.
At age 25, Laura Sanko was a founding member of a startup that raised $3.5 Million from some world-famous investors and the Founder’s Fund. The business model was simple: a website that rented high-end jewelry for special occasions for a fraction of the retail value of each piece. Three years later, the investment money was all gone and while the site continued to operate, it had failed to meet the investors’ expectations. I sat down with Laura to figure out what went wrong.