Whether you’re making a plan to go it alone or you’re already deep in the trenches of entrepreneurship, the odds of succeeding as a startup have been said to be one out of every 10. So if it really is a one in 10 chance of success, what are the 10% doing right that the other 90% aren’t, and what can entrepreneurs do about those odds being stacked against them?
Today Randi discussed the answers to these questions about entrepreneurship with Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur and Shea Tate-Di Donna of Silicon Valley entrepreneur incubator, Zana.
“I had the really amazing job of finding out what could help build the best business possible.”
“It’s all about lessons learned and best practices and being able to facilitate an on-demand platform around the globe.”
“When you’re in it, it just feels so personal and specific to your situation. But when you come up for air you realize that everyone has the same experiences.”
“If you ask how someone else solved their problem, people are happy to share.”
“The next great Silicon Valley is going to be online.”
“When we first launched I thought we’d go from the US to international, but that’s not what happened. People overseas embraced Zana first.”
“We do entrepreneurship and startups different in Silicon Valley. It happens here first. We have to be on the cutting edge.”
“The hardest thing about being a VC is saying no to entrepreneurs about 99% of the time.”
“It was rare to see other female investors or women coming into pitch. Ultimately that’s one of the reasons I wanted to found Zana.”
“We have a huge priority to democratize entrepreneurship. Not just women, but racial minorities too.”
“I wanted to create an opportunity for women to share their stories, like Alicia Lu at coach.me.”
“If you’re at the idea stage, we have a section about how to brainstorm and get started into forming a company.”
“If you’re actively working on growth and distribution we have a section dedicated to that.”
“Hiring and attracting talent is a huge concern.”
“We’re not founder-centric we’re team-centric.”
“Great entrepreneurs don’t wait. They just solve the problem with the resources they have at the moment.”
“Extreme curiosity and deep conviction are traits of a successful entrepreneur.”
“Joining a startup as a recent college grad is a great way to get hands on training to becoming an entrepreneur.”
“Not one thing I learned getting my MBA at Duke helped me run my business today.”
“I find the academic culture to be antithetical to the business culture.”
“I see how people engage with how to get started and consume as much information as possible.”
“I’m working on meditation as an entrepreneur I need a daily guided meditation.”
“Entrepreneurs aren’t born that way, they decide to step up and become them.”
“Whether they made $1000 or $10,000,000, entrepreneurs all still have the same struggles.”
“Stepping up, taking the chances, and doing the work makes you an entrepreneur.”
“Have confidence in yourself, as in not always looking for what someone else did. What they did won’t always work for you.”
“Businesses, like humans, are kind of fluid.”
“Even the most successful entrepreneurs are still wrong on a daily basis.”
“You can’t have a business until you have an idea.”
“The fears of quitting their job and going at it alone is something most people want to hear about.”
*”It’s the idea of failure, not so much failure itself, is what holds people back.”
“I’ve become accustomed to the struggle of failure.”
*”Wayne Gretzky is the highest scorer in hockey history but he’s also missed the most shots.”
“Typically when you do something the first time you don’t get it right.”
“Education is beyond school and it should be for anyone who wants to be successful. You have to educate yourself after school is done.”
“Freelancing to me is creating yourself a job, entrepreneurship is building a business that is bigger than you.”
“Freelancing is a brilliant gateway to entrepreneurship. You can scale any freelancing work you do.”
“Once you get into intrapreneurship for too long you can work yourself out of a job. But it can lead to entrepreneurship.”
“Stubbornness is really just confidence. You’re going to do things people are going to tell you are crazy. You have to be confident enough to follow yourself.”
“I wanted the show for myself so I built it. I didn’t wait for someone else to do it for me.”
“Chris Brogin was my very first interview and he blew me away. It set me on the path to take this seriously.”
“Millennials will be great entrepreneurs but not until they’re 40 like the rest of us.”
“I don’t think you’re going to find any good entrepreneurs in a classroom teaching. They’ll be mentors, but you can only learn business by being in business.”
“Stay educated and keep reading books and listening to the podcasts and shows that talk about what’s working and not. Stay in the game and see what’s coming.”
“What’s in small business now won’t be the same in 5 years.”
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