Musings of a journeyman entrepreneur.
Heads up, I launched the first episode of the podcast.
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My earliest foray into entrepreneurship was shoveling snow, raking leaves, and mowing lawns. I'd push a lawn all over the block, offering to cut neighbors' lawns for $20.
One of the most common responses I got when offering this service was, "No, thank you, I have a son too that can do this."
I learned two of the most valuable lessons in starting a company without knowing it.
#1 - Be comfortable being told, "No."
You will be told, "No", A LOT. From everyone, you can imagine. You will be told "No" when offering your service. You will be told "No" when asking someone to join your venture. You will be told "No" when asking someone to invest in you.
Most people, if told "No" enough times, will quit. I don't have any data to back this, but my fear has always been if I quit at last, "No," I'd never make it to that next "Yes."
My mom always told me winners never quit, and quitters never win.
In 6th grade, I had a paper route, and I would receive a bonus if I onboarded a new home to our services. So, I would go door to door, asking if they were interested in subscribing to the Daily Gazette. And you know what, most people want to avoid subscribing to the Daily Gazette.
But those that did make up for all the ones that didn't.
The way returns work in Venture Capital, the business of starting businesses, is that most companies will fail. But the ones that succeed make up for all the losses.
After going door to door, I was immune from being told "No" because I built a personal conviction that echoed "Yes" in my ears as I ventured on. I knew there was a "Yes" out there somewhere, and I would not quit until it materialized in closing a deal.
#2 - Am I offering unique value?
In building a company, this is called "Product Market Fit".
Do I have the right solution for the right problem and person?
Let me try to break this down.
Most people look at the world from the perspective of their offering or their solution. Because my solution was a newspaper, everyone I approached, in my eyes, had the problem of needing a newspaper, and that was what I wanted to solve.
As the adage goes, everything looks like a nail when you have a hammer.
Are you offering a solution to a problem someone doesn't have? What if they got their news from the internet? Or did they receive free papers from work? Or was the TV/radio enough news for them?
When I offered to mow that person's lawn, my services were unnecessary because they had a solution.
I had the right solution to the right problem for the wrong person.
To avoid belaboring this point, you must deeply understand the problem you are solving and the person you are solving it for to introduce a product that can reach the market correctly.
So, how DO you start a company?
There are a billion different answers to this question, but I'll give you my methodology.
You start a company with pen and paper.
Too simple?
Business models, business plans, term sheets, offer letters, sales contracts, and investment memos - pen and paper.
The art of communicating and convincing people to buy your product, invest in your idea, and enter business agreements with you is predicated on your ability to effectively communicate your solution to their problem.
Being able to think clearly with conviction is amplified when you are forced to formalize your thoughts, especially with an audience in mind.
It may sound good to YOU, but how does it sound to your customers? How does it sound to your business partners and colleagues?
Some more competent people have written about this topic, so check out this Harvard Business Review article titled The Science of Strong Business Writing by Bill Birchard.
These experiences allowed me to have no fear when raising capital from Venture Investors.
Build or Sell
Naval Ravikant tweeted a thread some years ago, "How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)." There were many remarkable points in the thread.
How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
I highly recommend you read the whole thread, but this tweet, in particular, is thought-provoking.
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018
Another lesson I learned early in my foray into entrepreneurship is that I needed to gain fundamental skills in building. So I had to find something to sell.
I joined a project that spun out of the College of Engineering and was introduced to my entrepreneurship class. It was a solar-powered mesh wi-fi router called mesh++. In my head - I knew I could sell this.
We entered a pitch competition, got 2nd place, and were off to the races. The many hats I wore all boiled down to my ability to convince people, inside and outside the organization, about the conviction of my thoughts.
Sales boil down to two things: why you should care and what action you can take.
I left the company to learn to build. I spent the summer learning to program in Python and Ruby and landed a job on Wall Street as a support engineer.
But building isn't just coding; it's writing, making videos, and recording a podcast. Things I'm still currently doing.
Building boils down to what is someone's problem, and what is your solution?
To build the skillset of building a company before you even have an idea, write as a form of building and convince people to read your writing as a form of selling.
You can extrapolate this into many forms, from creating content to coding.
But make sure to develop company-building skills before you have an idea. Otherwise, it'll be too late.
So, what's the GCF? Sell what you Build.
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