Archive for the ‘Start up’ Category
- You stop moving and you die.
[...] web software is like a shark. You stop moving and you die.
- Anatomy of an Entrepreneur
I think that entrepreneurs are made of 99% perspiration! But the Kauffman foundation for entrepreneurship has a better idea. The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur released in the summer by the Kauffman foundation fprovides insights into high-growth founders’ motivations and their socio-economic, educational and familial backgrounds.
A team of researchers led by Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, Raj Aggarwal of the University of Akron, Krisztina Holly of the University of Southern California and Alex Salkever of Duke University surveyed 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics and health care. I found what they unearthed fascinating – and at the same time not really in line with how I viewed entrepreneurs:
- Founders tend to be middle-aged and well-educated
- These entrepreneurs tend to come from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and they were better educated and more entrepreneurial than their parents
- Not typically college dropouts!
- Most entrepreneurs are married and have children – I don’t know how most of them do it since I can barely find the time to play with my dog!
- These entrepreneuers had an early interest in starting companies
- Their motivation for becoming entrepreneurs includes building wealth, owning a company, startup culture and capitalizing on a business idea
- The majority of respondents (75.4 percent) had worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before launching their own companies. Nearly half (47.9 percent) launched their first companies with more than ten years of work experience.
The report makes for an interesting read. I wonder how the statistics actually break down when comparing male to female entrepreneurs. Wondering if the motivations could be different.
- CEO Uniform
Monday evening humour via Business Week: “These days, CEOs no more have to wear a suit and tie than senators have to behave themselves in Congress.” If you are wondering I don’t wear a suit.
- Boring
Thanks to all the friends who emailed me this New York Times article. I am not sure what they are trying to tell me but
but according to the latest research “[...] warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.’s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive.” Slightly boring? Really?(c) Photo by Manuel Bordallo
- David versus Goliath
Underdog war. An awesome read in The New Yorker.
- Entrepreneurship
Steve Balmer on entrepreneurship, his remarks at Stanford University in early may are a fun read. It is nice to have a long term view.I think it’s just a phenomenal time to be starting all kinds of companies
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Win ugly, always be ready and prepared, and eat slowly.
- If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital has a great wisdom post for startups. Have really enjoyed reading his blog posts lately.
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[...] sometimes we hold up innovation by concentrating on the wrong thing at the start. And sometimes it’s because of the anchors and frames of the way we do things.
Work: CEO of 
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