From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Entrepreneurship is the relentless drive to carry-on, no matter what. Entrepreneurship is tolerance, focus and dedication. Entrepreneurship is this 'true north' belief that whatever this 'thing' is that you want to bring to culture, that you will see it through… and that you are the one here to usher it into existence.
In the last 20 years I believe I have become a hybrid entrepreneur – believing in the power of technology and process, but also in the very deep humanistic point of view. I guess it's a weird mix of Italian with Silicon Valley.
Today, entrepreneurship is fashionable, it's something you can develop in your character and strengthen. I'm not so sure… I believe that entrepreneurship is something you're born with, or not. I've met many highly intelligent, and incredibly bright people who have not been able to develop their ideas into sensible businesses. Entrepreneurship is not related to intelligence, it's something you have or don't have.
As an entrepreneur you have to know your market. You shouldn't take too much advice, and you need to believe in your own ability and be ready to tackle problems. You also have to be prepared for the fact that it may not work!
I see myself as someone who seeds ideas well, but others execute them far better. I learned this the hard way; if I'd continued running everything, neither business would have survived. So, my approach was simple: spend three years as a controlling megalomaniac, then completely let go.
People who are building don't want to simply test their ideas in a microcosm, they want to be successful in the real-world, and San Francisco is an international city with real world connections.
Entrepreneurial businesses innovate, change, evolve and meet customer needs… it's about creating things that people value and love.
I've worked in a lot of different types of business in my career, and you can certainly get tied in knots when you want to create a great 'thing' but can't figure the business model to make it work. My approach was simple- if I didn't make those businesses profitable, I couldn't' innovate. Nobody will fund innovation in perpetuity – you need to make money; you need to deliver value to your customers. When people ask me whether we want growth or profit, I say yes! Both!
Elizabeth Holmes is the product of a culture that has brought up young entrepreneurs to say, and believe, that 'moving fast and breaking things' is cool, that disrupting now and worrying about the consequences later is fine and that breaking laws and regulations is something to be proud of.
Marketing is not going to solve a bad product, but it will be an easier and smoother with a good product, with repeat purchases and word of mouth as being the two things that are critical.
I started my entrepreneurship journey straight out of college, and at the time my goal was simple. I didn't want a real job, and I didn't want to wear a suit…. Anything more than that was a bonus.
The people who were there at the beginning may not be the people who are scalable... As a founder, one of the hardest things you ever may need to do is take someone into your office who was there from the beginning... but who you now recognise doesn't have the skills for the next chapter of the business' journey.