Posts tagged as:

Entrepreneurship

Wired for Innovation

by Daria Steigman on August 15, 2011

Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Y Combinator, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsI caught up on back issues of Wired this weekend. Good writing is underrated, and this magazine has some of the best. Plus, where else can you read about behavioral feedback loops, hackers, a kerfuffle over a hijacked copy of a video game, and Harry Potter in the same place?

There were also two terrific pieces about innovation and entrepreneurship. One is an homage to Y Combinator and its founder, Paul Graham. The energy of the participants jumps from the pages, as in this instructive description of how Graham and his team select candidates for their start-up bootcamp:

Graham tends not to pay too much attention to a candidate or team’s business plan—it’s likely to change during the course of the program anyway. Instead, he zeros in on the character and intelligence of the applicants. After one team’s presentation, Buchheit says that he would use the product. But Graham is skeptical. “Are these guys winners?” he asks. “It’s all about the guys.” The group is not accepted. [Bolded emphasis added by me.]

The other is a Clive Thompson essay on the roots of innovation. In The Breakthrough Myth, he cites researcher Bill Buxton who thinks:

paradigm-busting inventions are easy to see coming because they’re already lying there, close at hand… Truly billion-dollar breakthrough ideas have what Buxton calls surprising obviousness. They feel at once fresh and familiar.

Good food for thought.

Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann (Flickr).

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What’s Your Entrepreneurial DNA?

by Daria Steigman on August 12, 2011

entrepreneurship, review, Entrepreneurial DNA, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsClones might be perfect, but people are intriguing. We’re intriguing because we’re not all the same. We don’t look alike. We don’t act in unison. And we have different strengths—and weaknesses.

There also isn’t “one” entrepreneur. And, in Entrepreneurial DNA, Joe Abraham posits that the person who is suited to try and build the next Google isn’t the same person who should be opening a consultancy.

Abraham identifies four types of entrepreneurs and provides an assessment tool to help you identify your entrepreneurial DNA profile (mine is Specialist-Builder). Much of the book is then devoted to a description of each DNA type followed by seven business optimization strategies for each. They’re all things you might want to consider doing based on your business strengths and weaknesses. There are also exercises for putting what you’ve learned into action.

Read about the four entrepreneurial DNAs and my complete book review here.

Photo by John Goode (Flickr).

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5 Myths About Entrepreneurs

by Daria Steigman on August 2, 2011

entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsCheck out this instructive post by Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at Duke University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization. In it, he explores five myths about entrepreneurs:

  1. Typical U.S. tech entrepreneurs are in their 20s.
  2. Entrepreneurs are born, not made.
  3. College dropouts make the best entrepreneurs.
  4. Women can’t cut it in the tech world.
  5. Innovation requires venture capital.

These are myths, not facts.

There’s some interesting data in the article that debunks the conventional wisdom in some circles.

Photo by +Rex (Flickr).

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Cracking the Entrepreneur Equation

by Daria Steigman on May 23, 2011

entrepreneur, Independent Thinking, Steigman Communications

The next time someone tells you how lucky you are to “work for yourself” or “be your own boss,” hand them a copy of The Entrepreneur Equation.

Some days I wish there were a magic potion, a special key, a secret sauce. A wand I could wave that would mystically make my business hum along without having to worry simultaneously about budgets, business development, clients, networking, professional development, and all those pesky administrative activities.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just spend a day doing the business instead of working in it?

In The Entrepreneur Equation, Carol Roth explores what it takes to be successful and posits that “entrepreneurship-fits-all” is a big misconception. She’s right, and I love her for pointing out that:

“You can do anything you put your mind to, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

The book is broken down into two key sections.

  • Assessing Your Fit—Roth talks about running a business (and often doing less of what you love to do), the customers/investors/employees who are often your real bosses, the importance of both experience and business savvy, your risk tolerance, and the difference between ideas and execution. Sample Fare: “You may have gotten your hair cut every two months for your entire life, but that doesn’t mean you know how to run a beauty salon. When you are familiar with something, you may have a perspective on it, but that does not equate to business experience.”
  • Assessing the Business Fit—Roth focuses in on understanding the opportunity and what you have to give up to start up. Sample Fare: “If you do not (or cannot) evaluate whether you will be making an appropriate return on your investment, and whether the financial trade-off of the business is worth the risk from a financial perspective, stop, drop, and absolutely do not quit your day job.”

While I don’t agree with all the author’s assessments (for example, I believe you can have far more control over your business than the book suggests), Roth has written a useful book for wannabe entrepreneurs to assess how much of their enthusiasm is about the idea of owning a business versus the reality of running one every day. So the next time someone tells you how lucky you are to “work for yourself” or “be your own boss,” just hand them a copy of The Entrepreneur Equation.

 

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Can We Build a Super-Entrepreneur?

by Daria Steigman on May 10, 2011

entrepreneur, Steve Austin, $6 million ManFred Wilson wrote a thoughtful analysis of the differences between first timers and serial entrepreneurs:

“The best first time entrepreneurs have been stewing on their idea for quite a while… They often get the right product into the market at the right time and they capture the user’s attention and usage with that product/market fit. Where [they] often struggle is when the product works so well that they have to quickly build a company to support the product…

Serial entrepreneurs … often struggle with the founding idea and getting to product/market fit… But when serial entrepreneurs do settle on the right idea and find product/market fit, they are usually terrific at building the company. They know when to step on the gas and where. They know how to recruit, manage, and structure organizations.”

While Wilson nailed the analysis, I think Deb Lee defined what we really need:

Would be nice to mash the first timer w/ the serial enterpreneur to build a “super entreprenuer.” 6 mil $ man for biz.

Nice indeed. I’m wondering what Steve Austin would say.

Photo by flashbacks.com (Flickr).

 

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