The Ups & Downs of Leading a Startup (through the Finish Line)

Joe Meyerjoejmeyer@gmail.com

“Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

- Confucius -

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

- Winston Churchill -

Entrepreneurship isn’t a “career path”• Post-MBA

– PwC: Emerging Co. Services (needed to payoff loans; learn ropes)

– eRide: 1st entrepreneurial “failure” (or great learning experience?)

– eBay: Best career decision (no longer a ‘failed .com’ entrepreneur)

– Onset Ventures: EIR (“failure” or a stepping stone?)

– Quigo (acquired by AOL): 1st start-up “win”

– HopStop (acquired by Apple): 2nd start-up “win”

– What’s next? - likely another start-up (it’s a disease )

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

- Vince Lombardi -

“When you cease to dream you cease to live.”

- Malcolm Forbes -

Other start-up accomplishments

• 2012: Crain’s “Entrepreneur of the Year”• 2014: #9 on Business Insider's 2013 "Silicon Alley 100”

• Board Roles– Adtuitive (acquired by Etsy)– Kalexo (acquired by Autodesk)– Belief Networks (acquired by Benefit Focus)– Spongecell, Verdict is Still Out– Snooth: Verdict is Still Out

MyGreatestSuccesses

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that,

you’ll do things differently.”

- Warren Buffett -

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

- Warren G. Tracy’s student -

The Common Misconception

The nature of being an entrepreneur means that you fully embrace ambiguity and are comfortable with being challenged regularly.

Choosing this career path is completely irrational because the odds of succeeding are dismal, but most succeed because of their

persistence, unwavering belief, and laser focus on delivering.

Starting a company is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs, and at times, difficult lows

- Forbes (5/2/13) -

The (Entrepreneurial) Reality

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do

than by the ones you did do.”

- Mark Twain -

Top Quotes Every Entrepreneur Should Live By

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions

drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart

and intuition. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs -

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

- Bill Cosby -

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

- Napoleon Hill -

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you,

too, can become great.”

- Mark Twain -

“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else

wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.”

- Steve Jobs -

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

- Bill Gates -

Building a company is like writing a novel

“I tell them you learn to write the same way you learn to play golf. You do it, and keep

doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that

maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired - it’s hard work.”

- Tom Clancy -

“Genius is 1% inspiration,and 99% perspiration.”

- Thomas Edison -

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the

best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

- Vince Lombardi -

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

- Bill Gates -

Success vs. Happiness

“Success is the fame; happiness is the rise”

“Success is the race; happiness is the finish line”

“Success is pursuing your dreams; happiness is living your dreams”

“Success is all the money in the world; happiness is needing none of it”

- Albert Schweitzer -

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love

what you are doing, you will be successful.”

- Albert Schweitzer -

“Luck is the residue of hard work”

- Anonymous (claimed by Joe Meyer :)-