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Do’s and Don’ts - Presentation by Bambi Francisco on Entrepreneurship
- 1. Do’s and Don’ts WhatI learned as an entrepreneur and a human
- 2. Not a VC,investment bank, or media company, rather an ecosystem Software platform Events, gatherings Research Advisory Vator Investment Club (VIC)
- 3. Highly regard byentrepreneurs and investors Vator Splash was a great momentum- builder for us as we were getting ready to fundraise. The victory provided social proof to prospective investors and increased our chances of successfully attracting investment. We went on to raise $1M from a great group of angel investors! Gagan Biyani Founder of Sprig, Udemy Vator's competition platform made it simple to judge contestants… It's the most efficient solution to judging competitions and it makes the process of judging a lot more fun!e Vator Splash competition makes it easy and efficient to review a large number of early-stage startups that I would not otherwise have been exposed to. Jeremy Liew, Partner, Lightspeed To be back on stage at a Vator event at this exciting time in Thumbtack’s history is a kind of homecoming for us. Winning Vator’s first competition helped launch Thumbtack. Marco Zappacosta, Founder & CEO Thumbtack
- 4. Who am I? CEO/ Founder Vator Columnist/Correspondent for Dow Jones/Marketwatch, CNBC, Fox Tech Anchor for CBS Managed $1B money market fund for AIG Random facts: Mother of 4 boys Trekked to Everest Base Camp Rode the Tour de France (Pyrenees); Ran the Camino de Santiago Rode the Death Ride (California Alps) Worked for Donald Trump
- 5. Do one thingevery day that scares you Eleanor Roosevelt
- 6. Do start everyday with an accomplishment “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed” Admiral William McRaven
- 7. Do sell whatthey need Mark Cuban
- 8. Do “read thingsthat are not yet on the page” Steve Jobs
- 9. Do always askwhy Will (10 yrs old): Why do you always ask why? Race (5 yrs old): Why don’t you ever?
- 10. Don’t be lazy “Anythingthat has been done can be done better” Vivek Ranadive, Owner Sacramento Kings; CEO Tibco
- 11. Do iterate and findyour value-add
- 12. Do be determinedand resilient Scott Banister, CEO Ironport acquired by Cisco for $800M Paul Buchheit, creator Gmail; Founder Friendfeed, sold to Facebook for $50M
- 13. Just DO it Sometimesit’s just “Time to make the donuts” Dunkin Donuts 1984 commercial
- 14.
- 15. Do put inyour 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell
- 16. Do embrace constraints andboundaries Jack Dorsey, CEO Twitter, Square
- 17. Don’t accept more thanyou need Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff (Ring acquired for $1B by Amazon)
- 18. Do desire, butdon’t have strong expectations “Vision is bumbling around” Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
- 19. Do be patient “Someof the best investments occur late in the life of a technology,” Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital
- 20.
- 21. Don’t complexify things “Thetruth is so simple, we often miss it” Peter Thiel
- 22. Do start withthe premise that we deserve nothing Then everything becomes a gift and we can be grateful
- 23. Don’t take advice; Makeyour own mistakes Pete Cashmore, Founder Mashable
Editor's Notes
- #6 I don’t really like speaking like this. I’m an introvert and I love to write to express myself. And while yes - I’ve been on TV, and I’ve been on stage - it’s not natural. So even doing this is scary. But a couple examples, my five-year-old son went on the chair lift by himself (with no bars), and I had to brace myself and say, he’ll be
- #7 First task of the day, and it will encourage you to do more tasks
- #8 Sometimes it just has to a slam dunk. Mark Cuban sold garbage bags when he was 12 because he knew it would sell. Steve Jobs -- “I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
- #11 Challenge the status quo
- #12 What about finding the right business model? I asked. Alfred said that "as a startup you don't necessarily know." To that end, find one that's at least a big opportunity and try, iterate, try, iterate, etc. "Try something," he said. "It may not work. If it works great, if it doesn’t continue to iterate." Alfred also talks about how Zappos zeroed in on "services" as a product. You don't hear this all to often. Many retailers try to gain a leg up by having the most locations, the most inventory, etc. So, why did Zappos begin to focus on selling "service" as their value add?
- #13 Out of 1000 lessons, No. 1 is to be determined. Not give up; be resilient. Entrepreneurship is not linear. “Back to the drawing board” Paul Buchheit (built gmail, created the like button with Friendfeed, sold to FB for $50M); IronPort sold for $800M -- "PayPal had probably 40 people before the full transition from Palm Pilot payments onto eBay payments," he said. At IronPort, there were 20 people before the company switched gears and started selling to marketing departments within enterprises, rather than IT departments. "We went back to the drawing board," he said, referring to the early days at IronPort.
- #14 It’ll be repetitive; it’ll be exhausting -- Sisyphus
- #15 When you do something, do it well. Do it like you have someone watching you.
- #17 -- Life and entrepreneurship isn’t always up and to the right. Jack Dorsey says “It's important to constrain the process,"
- #18 Sometimes you have to learn what was too much to take to know what not to take in the future.
- #19 Vision is great, especially when you can do it with 20/20 hindsight," said entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who last night received a Visionary Award, an honor bestowed annually to industry leaders who've pioneered innovation. The award was given by the SDForum, a leading Silicon Valley non-profit organization. -- "I still don’t believe in vision. I believe in bumbling around long enough to not give up on things. Eventually, when success comes your way because you've failed in every possible way, and the only way that’s left is the one successful way. And, always for those of you who are entrepreneurs, it seems to come last.
- #20 http://vator.tv/news/2007-10-18-lessons-learned-what-sergey-and-larry-taught-michael-moritz -- Be patient. It’s a bigger picture out there and sometimes it’s just no your time. "Some of the best investments occur late" in the life of a technology. In 1986, ten or 12 years after the first consumer PCs, the conventional wisdom said that the PC industry was too crowded to invest in, he continued. "But then you had a kid in Texas (Michael Dell of Dell Inc., which was not a Sequoia investment), who started building them in his dorm room and today he's a household name." "It's the same history as Google," he said. "In 1999, five or six years after the first search companies, the conventional wisdom assumed that it was too late" to invest.
- #21 Entrepreneurs invent their lives and their circumstances. There’s nothing holding us back. So don’t let other circumstances in your life hold you back.
- #22 We often focus too much on tactics and not one guiding principle. One example is when my Aunt wanted to write a book called Skinny Jeans - it was supposed to be about how to lose weight. Her husband a doctor said I can write that book in one sentence - “Consume fewer calories than you expend”
- #23 I tell my kids as they go through life highly privileged as many of us are living here in the Bay Area -- this is a gift.
- #24 http://vator.tv/news/2008-02-21-lessons-learned-mashables-pete-cashmores-says-dont-take-advice Everyone is different, and everyone finds different ways to be successful..