entrepreneurship 2
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Ditch the business plan and buy a lottery ticket. That's the advice I give new entrepreneurs who seek venture funding. The odds are better, and you'll get results sooner with the lottery.
The Art of Doing It Yourself
Researchers say anyone can learn to innovate like Steve Jobs. After a six-year study, researchers say they have identified the secrets of being a great innovator Innovation is not an inherent trait, it's a set of skills that anyone can learn Exposing yourself to new ideas and observing the world around you can drive innovation London, England (CNN) -- Coming up with brilliant, game-changing ideas is what makes the likes of Apple's Steve Jobs so successful, and now researchers say they have identified the five secrets to being a great innovator
Learn the five secrets of innovation
Selling for Survival
If I were creating a survival guide for entrepreneurs, the first lesson would be on selling. Yes, you have to learn to raise and manage money, create great products that your customers actually need, manage and motivate your employees, and so on.October 2006 (This essay is derived from a talk at MIT.) Till recently graduating seniors had two choices: get a job or go to grad school.
A Student's Guide to Startups
How Experienced Developers Can Handicap a Lean Startup
Inexperienced developers have one big advantage: they haven’t been programmed to work for perfection and they’re not afriad to make mistakes.
You’ve heard the advice before: You’re a small company, act like one . Yet more and more entrepreneurs tend to think of their businesses as a small version of a large company – and they plan and hire accordingly. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, in this entrepreneurial though leadership lecture at Stanford University, points out the folly of this path and explains why segregating your company early on can be disastrous. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/swf/player-ec.swf
Start-ups have no room for VPs
This post is a follow up to one of our previous posts that discussed starting a software business during the recession . In this post, I want to focus on the cash flow aspects for very early stage software startups. A few years ago, we started the company with nothing in the bank and we've managed to not only survive but prosper regardless of today's tough economic conditions. It is possible to launch a software startup with no money: the tradeoff is time. It will take longer to get out of the very early stages.
Penniless Startup Founders
Validated learning about customers
Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? Sounds like a no-brainer, but I’d like to try and convince you that it’s not. All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. But all things are never equal. In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one .
No one disputes that Silicon Valley is the global capital of the tech world. But this wasn’t always so. It is the Valley’s dynamism and networks which have given it an unassailable advantage. Silicon Valley has simply left rivals like Boston’s Route 128 in the dust. I mentioned a little bit about my first Columbus Day in California in a previous column .
The Valley of My Dreams: Why Silicon Valley Left Boston’s Route
Start-up studies: A pop quiz
There’s a classroom exercise that the Stanford technology venture program hits its students with each year: If you had five dollars and two hours, what would you do to make as much money as possible? STVP Executive Director Tina Seelig discusses the query and how budding entrepreneurs responded. What about you, EC readers? How would you answer? Sound off in the comments below.At 17, Gurbaksh Chahal was clueless about kissing girls and holding hands, but he was savvy enough to make $300,000 a month with an Internet advertising company he founded in his bedroom at his family's home in San Jose. When he flew to Los Angeles on business, the young Sikh with a turban and a beard looked mature, but he was too young to rent a car to drive to his appointments, so he concealed his age by taking cabs to meet his clients. When he sought venture capital from investors, he skirted questions about his experience (none!)
Advice from young millionaire Gurbaksh Chahal
I recently read a quote that inspired me and thought, "Why not share it with others?" I've also collected a list of quotes from entrepreneurs and other quotes that are relevant to entrepreneurship. Skip and I included our own at the bottom of the post. I hope one of these quotes inspires you as well.
The Cheap Revolution: Top 20 Entrepreneurial Quotes
Comment & analysis - Share ideas to the maximum
Enjoy full access to FT.com's award-winning news, comment and analysis. With over from 500 journalists reporting from over 50 countries, read our trusted news, expert insight and authoritative opinion as it's happening. Access FT.com's 5 year archive of news, comment, analysis, reports and more for all the information on factors affecting your business you need. Whether you're researching a competitor or just need background information for a presentation, you're sure to find what you need. <p style="text-align:right;color:#A8A8A8"></p>Jonathan Abrams created the first online social network and enlisted Silicon Valley's best and brightest to run it. Yet Friendster flamed out spectacularly. What went wrong?