Five Things No One Says About Start-Ups

I’ve had two startups. Both lasted too long and did not take off. From that experience I had some take-aways that I think you might find valuable if you are young and thinking of starting a company.

When working on the start-up I noticed that when young people (like me at that time) have an idea to start a company, there are a lot of things they do to get the company going. One of the things young hopeful entrepreneurs do is try to learn all that you can about how to make a start-up grow. Young entrepreneurs end up spending a lot of the time going to meetups and talks and learning a lot from people who “have made it” who tell you how to “make it”.

I did my share of going to those talks, listening to podcasts, watching youtube classes and reading startup books. And from all this “research”, I am here to tell you that most of what they say is bullshit.

What all those podcasts and speakers never tell you, no matter how accomplished, is that what works for them is not likely to work for you. Why? Because they leave out the most important parts of what made them succeed. So what makes them succeed? I’ll tell you.

Business and Legal Knowhow

The first thing that most entrepreneurs start to do once they have an idea is try to learn everything they can about startups. They spend money on lawyers, get incorporated, learn about patent law, get patents, learn about marketing, try to understand business growth and sales. All of that information is out there for them on every startup forum and website. And all of that information is complete BULLSHIT. You don’t need it. Just get a good lawyer, get a good business knowing co-founder and find the right people. You don’t need to know anything other than how to make your products that which you envision it and let other people worry about the other things. All the time you spend going to talks and and learning about this just strokes the ego’s of people talking and presenting, wastes your time and takes time away from what is important: YOUR PRODUCT!

Connections

The difference between a company in a garage and a company that will sell for millions is the VC. The VC is the person who invests money into a company and gives it valuation. This valuation allows to raise more money and ultimately look big enough to a big company to be sold. So you have to get on the radar of the VC. The VC’s and entrepreneurs always talk about the fact that VC’s don’t like cold calls. They like to be introduced to a company. This means connections. No one introduces someone they recently met. They introduce people they know well. This means that unless you have parents or friends who are very rich, the likely hood of that introduction is very low. And if you don’t have connections, you won’t likely get funded and if you don’t get funded, you fancy app doesn’t matter. This is why it mattered that Elon Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and many other name had deep great rolodex. Elon Musk created his own but other really didn’t have to work very hard. So if you don’t have connections and you plan to go VC route, find someone with connections to join you or forget it until you actually have some connections.

Expertise

One thing that most entrepreneurs and VCs don’t talk about in all of their talks and classes is the value of expertise. You might have a good idea, but the feasibility and ability to accomplish that idea requires expertise, deep expertise. More often than not, a new idea or product requires someone who has worked in the field for a long time, maybe has a PhD or has been involved in companies from ground up. If you don’t have expertise, the person with expertise will bypass you because they will do it right with fewer mistakes. So if you think you have an idea in an industry you are not familiar in, find a partner who knows a lot about it or assume that your idea is either not original or not feasible, at least not for you.

Age

Most people you hear with startups are young. Most successful ones are old. What most successful entrepreneurs and VC’s don’t tell you is that energy and desire and naiveté are not a substitute for experience. Most successful entrepreneurs are in their forties for a reason, they have more connections, they have expertise and they also have experience dealing with people, working hard and being focused. Young people no matter how much they want to succeed with the startup are unfocused. They have girlfriends, friends, travels. Older people have a spouse that cooks and works, they have kids, they go out less, work more and have something on the line. A young person has nothing to lose and will be more likely to call it quits or work less hard. Older people have the idea and have something to lose, a lot to lose, and they also have the resources, the experience and the connections to accomplish the task.

Attitude

My Launching Startups Professor Morehead at Kellogg once told us that in startups, 99% is not good enough.One thing that sets apart a successful entrepreneur from one who dabbles is an approach to their goals. Those who succeed are an A-type, fight to the death, I will not quit unless I’m dead, I get what I want and I create what I need mentality. People who hope for money, hope for help, hope for success do not succeed. When you are competing with big companies, with time, with unproven technology with fickle people and customers, you cannot go half throttle. You have to be the type of person who will not just die trying but will attack problems like a starving wolf. If that is not who you are, if that is not in your DNA, you are wasting your time.

So here you are, five things I have never heard said at any of the startup events I wasted my time on. So if you are too young, too timid, too inexperienced and too unconnected, don’t waste your time on learning about startups. Get experience, get connected, develop grit and over that time you will age and as you do hat, you will become ready to be an older but successful entrepreneur.