Birmingham Entrepreneur Meeting June 2009
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Transcript of Birmingham Entrepreneur Meeting June 2009
Some Lessons, etc
Duncan [email protected]
A couple of things
• Some random (business) wisdom I’d like to share that I’ve learned the hard way
• The best time to start a business is absolutely, positively, now
Career
• The steps of a career:
Stage 1 – What you know
Stage 2 – Who you know
Stage 3 – Who knows you
Your Network is your Net Worth
Get in a new network in 6 monthsShow upAsk QuestionsVolunteerContribute
Your world is a small pond
• Money comes and goes, get used to it in this line of work
• Relationships are what the world, and your future, is based on
What is the number one factor in a business’s success?
The experience of the CEO/Founder/etc
Catch-22 – how to get it?
• EXPECT Failure – Remember Mark Cuban• Just please don’t repeat the same mistake
twice
Keep taking shots. You may always suck as a shooter, but you’ll make more baskets than the next guy.
Learn Business Fundamentals
• Build in a freakin profit• Stop thinking tech – think emotional impact.
Think how you’ll change people’s habits to their liking. Think how they’ll keep more money. Think MEANING.
• Learn how to bootstrap
• Learn how to monetize• Learn some business models that always work• You date ideas, you never marry them
Have an exit strategy
• Learn how to sell – nothing happens until someone makes a sale – sales solves all
• TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEAS – seriously, they are cheaper than you think
• Nobody wants to steal them. Well, nobody that matters.
There has never, ever, in the history of mankind, been a better time to start a
major business
Why?
• More connected world• More disposable income– And cheaper stuff! = more disposable income….
• Easier ways to monetize
Outrageously Rapid Development times
• More APIs every day• REST standards• Programming methods – Cake, RoR• “The Cloud” – cheap, free? Incredibly
sophisticated, and moreso every day.
Brainstorm
• Borrow ideas – use them in other contexts• Abstract out a narrow idea• Go ahead, be insanely niche – more money than
ever• Mobile?• Facebook?• Destroy an industry – and be prepared to be
destroyed• Add value