What makes entrepreneurs great? And where are they doing?
We publish the translation of a small note by Bob Dorf, a serial entrepreneur, co-author of the book “Startup. Handbook of founders and author of the Customer Development method, as well as the dean of GVA LaunchGurus. In his article, Bob answers a number of the most private questions that are asked.
What do you think is the main problem of the formation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem?
As with many emerging markets, the biggest challenge is finding business models and mentors - experienced people who have already experienced successes and failures in startups, and who are willing to teach others not by textbooks or even by our “Startup Founder's Handbook” but based on real, sometimes painful, experience. And there are few business models: few successful companies or entrepreneurs that can be copied, from which you can learn, with which you can compete. Other key factors are also standard: there are too few investors who have enough desire or knowledge to risk investing in companies at early stages of development, when results can exceed all expectations, but the risk of failure is not 50, and not even 60%, but 93% or even 95%, and maybe more, if you count on unprecedented incomes. You can not calculate the winner and invest in one project, you must have at your disposal a portfolio of projects - and even in this case, the risk is big.
What distinguishes American entrepreneurs from emerging market entrepreneurs?
Firstly, there are many successful entrepreneurs in the USA, so it is easier to find them, you can read about them everywhere, you can admire them as heroes. But more importantly, the level of engineering and education in the field of computer science in the United States is certainly much higher than in developing countries. Professors of the best schools in emerging market countries are usually taught programming languages either “how to be a cool IT manager” or “how to code in PERL”. At Stanford, in the best American educational institution, for example, they teach “strategies for developing technical tools for big data”, creative thinking, abstract futuristic visualizations of software and development skills that they have no idea about in most developing countries. And they learn from them the brightest minds, who often write a dissertation. And these students are overly motivated, they work 24 hours a day and on weekends to become the best at Stanford. This is the role model for a truly great innovator or entrepreneur.
')
Guess - in what area is the next sensation expected?
I can not stand this question. I usually reply in response to a project in which ONLY THAT bright minds of venture funds invested. As a rule, I first see what the Sequoia Foundation is doing, then - Union Square Ventures, and then - Kleiner Perkins. Recently, all of them have been closely following the “Internet of Things” (actually, like everyone who can explain what it is), for learning cars, for cars with network capabilities, and for all sorts of secret things about which, being smart people, Do not apply on their sites.
How do you motivate yourself?
This was never a problem for me, except for the only case in 1989 when I sold my first company to an asshole who was suddenly promoted from a merger specialist to director and my boss.
If I take on something, I work tirelessly, almost without interruption, so that in case of failure, the failure was caused not by the fact that Bob Dorf did not put his soul into the project.
What can you advise young entrepreneurs?
Work in a startup for six months or even a year before even thinking about launching your project. It is important to understand what sacrifices you will need, how tense the situation will be, how much stress and uncertainty about your future will await you. Startups are now too popular and they are often chosen as an option for career development, although 90% of people employed in startups would prefer a stable job with all sorts of benefits and automatically accrued salaries. This is a very difficult path that I personally would not trade for any other. But, if I am not mistaken, the researchers estimated that only 2 out of 1000 people have the qualities necessary for truly talented entrepreneurs, and this is not the same as successful entrepreneurs - people with energy, passion, perseverance and assertiveness, which allows them to conduct business forward- it doesn't matter to the grave or straight to the securities market of new york.
If you invited people to your next startup, who would it be and what qualities would you pay attention to?
I would have invited people like Alex Stenton. Alex came to my first company when the project was five years old, and he was 26. From the first day, he treated the company as his own, always worked very hard, kept asking what else he could do, always being smart and always put the interests of the company above their own. At first he was paid $ 200 a week, and he left the company, which had already been renamed Dorf & Stanton (Dorf and Stanton), with a round sum of millions of dollars, and he earned every cent.
____________________________________________________________
At the end, we offer you to watch the Business Breakfast Record with Bob Dorf with Moscow, which will be interesting for novice entrepreneurs:
What do you think is the main problem of the formation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem?
As with many emerging markets, the biggest challenge is finding business models and mentors - experienced people who have already experienced successes and failures in startups, and who are willing to teach others not by textbooks or even by our “Startup Founder's Handbook” but based on real, sometimes painful, experience. And there are few business models: few successful companies or entrepreneurs that can be copied, from which you can learn, with which you can compete. Other key factors are also standard: there are too few investors who have enough desire or knowledge to risk investing in companies at early stages of development, when results can exceed all expectations, but the risk of failure is not 50, and not even 60%, but 93% or even 95%, and maybe more, if you count on unprecedented incomes. You can not calculate the winner and invest in one project, you must have at your disposal a portfolio of projects - and even in this case, the risk is big.
What distinguishes American entrepreneurs from emerging market entrepreneurs?
Firstly, there are many successful entrepreneurs in the USA, so it is easier to find them, you can read about them everywhere, you can admire them as heroes. But more importantly, the level of engineering and education in the field of computer science in the United States is certainly much higher than in developing countries. Professors of the best schools in emerging market countries are usually taught programming languages either “how to be a cool IT manager” or “how to code in PERL”. At Stanford, in the best American educational institution, for example, they teach “strategies for developing technical tools for big data”, creative thinking, abstract futuristic visualizations of software and development skills that they have no idea about in most developing countries. And they learn from them the brightest minds, who often write a dissertation. And these students are overly motivated, they work 24 hours a day and on weekends to become the best at Stanford. This is the role model for a truly great innovator or entrepreneur.
')
Guess - in what area is the next sensation expected?
I can not stand this question. I usually reply in response to a project in which ONLY THAT bright minds of venture funds invested. As a rule, I first see what the Sequoia Foundation is doing, then - Union Square Ventures, and then - Kleiner Perkins. Recently, all of them have been closely following the “Internet of Things” (actually, like everyone who can explain what it is), for learning cars, for cars with network capabilities, and for all sorts of secret things about which, being smart people, Do not apply on their sites.
How do you motivate yourself?
This was never a problem for me, except for the only case in 1989 when I sold my first company to an asshole who was suddenly promoted from a merger specialist to director and my boss.
If I take on something, I work tirelessly, almost without interruption, so that in case of failure, the failure was caused not by the fact that Bob Dorf did not put his soul into the project.
What can you advise young entrepreneurs?
Work in a startup for six months or even a year before even thinking about launching your project. It is important to understand what sacrifices you will need, how tense the situation will be, how much stress and uncertainty about your future will await you. Startups are now too popular and they are often chosen as an option for career development, although 90% of people employed in startups would prefer a stable job with all sorts of benefits and automatically accrued salaries. This is a very difficult path that I personally would not trade for any other. But, if I am not mistaken, the researchers estimated that only 2 out of 1000 people have the qualities necessary for truly talented entrepreneurs, and this is not the same as successful entrepreneurs - people with energy, passion, perseverance and assertiveness, which allows them to conduct business forward- it doesn't matter to the grave or straight to the securities market of new york.
If you invited people to your next startup, who would it be and what qualities would you pay attention to?
I would have invited people like Alex Stenton. Alex came to my first company when the project was five years old, and he was 26. From the first day, he treated the company as his own, always worked very hard, kept asking what else he could do, always being smart and always put the interests of the company above their own. At first he was paid $ 200 a week, and he left the company, which had already been renamed Dorf & Stanton (Dorf and Stanton), with a round sum of millions of dollars, and he earned every cent.
____________________________________________________________
At the end, we offer you to watch the Business Breakfast Record with Bob Dorf with Moscow, which will be interesting for novice entrepreneurs:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/296556/
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