Once upon a time when I was thinking about growing up to be a serial entrepreneur I heard the following:
"One in a 100 start-ups get to the seed funding stage. One in hundred of those get to a Series A. One in a hundred of those that get a Series A or a Seed round get a Series B or an exit..."
This was followed by "One in 10,000 start-ups get to a public offering..."
A sane person would say that these odds suck.
I, of course, said, I like those odds. I am not unlike many of the extreme skiing, surfing, shark-diving entrepreneurs who believe the long odds make ourselves the favorite. I am amongst a large crew of start-up guys who believe the world conspires in our favor when the odds are longest. I actually believe that the odds tilt in my favor because I am involved. If the typical odds for a "normal" entrepreneur are 1:100 then I believe the odds for ME are more like 1:5.
From my experience with others in the start-up arena this prospect of success despite the odds is a common thread. For some it is their belief in their intelligence, or their technical acumen...for others it is their belief in how they read the marketplace...for still others it is their belief that they can sell anything...and for still others they believe they can build great teams and great teams can do anything. Whatever it is that the serial entrepreneur brings to the table they think they bring it in spades.
1 comment:
David's insight into the startup world and himself is spot on. I'm one of those technical entrepreneurs who can build or fix anything. Yet I need passionate business and market focused people like David to figure out what mousetrap needs to be built and how to bring it to market. David and I were a good team for nearly three years at Tailwind.
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