Entrepreneur DNA
I came across a very interesting blog post on Both Sides of the Table while browsing the blogosphere last night -- yes, Silicon Valley corporate lawyers have time to browse the web and read the occasional blog; don't listen to claims to the contrary. The blog is written by a two-time entrepreneur who now sits on the other side of the funding table as a venture capitalist. The post describes what the author believes are the 12 attributes that makes an entrepreneur, and each enumerated attribute leads to a separate post on that focuses on that individual attribute. It is a well-written, interesting blog post with great information for entrepreneurs.
The one thing that I think the author should add to the list is the ability to do the most with the least. From my perspective dealing with entrepreneurs on a daily basis and spending more than two years as the founder and CEO of an Internet startup, that is a crucial attribute for just about any entrepreneur.
Raising money is tough in any environment. In the current economic climate, it is next to impossible for first-time entrepreneurs with little more than a business plan. That means entrepreneurs are forced to actually develop the some part of the technology and often have some sort of customer validation before they will get funded. That is a far cry from the golden days of the late 90s when entrepreneurs had to do little other than add DOT.COM to their corporate name and start a website to have the funding spigot busted wide open. We can sit around and sulk about the good old days all we want, but the reality is that the game has changed, whether permanently or temporarily. Today's entrepreneurs really need to know how to stretch the dollar. They need to know how to build a company on less than a shoestring budget. In other words, they need to find a way to take modest sums of friends and family money and accomplish more than entrepreneurs of the previous two decades did with their first round of outside investment.
Entrepreneurs who can do the most with the least stand a far better chance of succeeding, in my opinion, than those who require large initial cash infusions--unless, of course, the entrepreneur is either flush with cash or has close friends who are flush with cash.
