Thursday, January 8, 2009

Ramblings on Starting a Company and Getting Funded...

I recently gave a short interview with TalkTech where I was asked about my thoughts on getting a start-up off the ground, and the attitude needed to persevere through the challenges of growing a business. I make no claims to be an authority on the subject, and if you choose to listen to anything I have to say you do so at your own risk, but here are a few things I will recommend you do before trying anything crazy like starting a company:

  1. Make sure your wife/husband/partner is incredibly supportive and ready for the fun that lies ahead...
  2. Choose your business partner(s) carefully, you'll need them to be on your side 100% of the time.
  3. Choose your employees extremely carefully, and your investors even more so.
  4. Fix your mistakes as fast as you can and move on... including your hiring mistakes!
  5. And probably most importantly: Don't ever accept that something can't be done just because noone else has figured it out yet.
Oh, and don't get too attached to sleep, you may not see much of it for a while.

In any case, if you're interested in a few minutes of my rambling, here's the interview.