What makes a successful Entrepreneur for Start Ups?
I had a lengthy disccussion with Robert Warren (www.RSWarren.com), someone I consider very intelligent when it comes to internet/tech start-ups. I wanted to recap some of our conclusions. When it comes to the successful entreprenuer for a start-up, Robert concluded that Education is likely the biggest success factor, with persistence in a close second.
The problem is that most of these highly successful tech startups became successes because they were positioned to take advantage of emerging trends and technologies. That doesn't mean that someone read about semiconductors in a trade rag - that means they were actually working in the university lab that was inventing the thing, long before anyone else in business knew about it. Page and Brin, the Google guys, are excellent examples: they first met as grad students at Stanford, researching large-scale data extraction issues in hypertexted databases back in 1996. They weren't just a couple of nitwits airing out a brainstorm over pizza and beer. They had a leg up.
What I find interesting is that the ones without the educational advantage usually make their money via margin on mass production, rather than true innovation. Nothing wrong with that. At opposite ends of the century, both Henry Ford and Michael Dell fit that category - both men made their money getting units off their assembly lines, rather than bringing new dramatic ideas to market. They've also succeeded through sheer will and persistence; Dell's rocked through good and bad times since 1984.
Aside from the occasional genius (Thomas Edison, etc.), there don't seem to be too many successful entrepreneurs that follow any sort of third path. It's either pole position or the long haul. If you're not sitting in a Stanford lab somewhere, tinkering with the alien fusion reactor that no one knows about, your best bet for success is to prepare for a long and hard war.
On the flip side, if I were going to give advice to a 15-year-old on how to be a billionaire by 30, I'd sound just like all the grownups that gave me the same advice back then: study hard, stay in school, get into a good college, get into a good R&D lab somewhere, keep your eyes and ears open for opportunity. It's not a guaranteed success path, but it sure doesn't hurt.
What do you think? Is at hard to become the next great Start-Up Entrepreneur as we think? (I hope not)
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