8 Entrepreneurship Lessons That Counter What You've Learned.

1. 8 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
LESSONS THAT COUNTER
WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED
Source: entrepreneur.com

2. JOHN LEMP
John Lemp started his own lawn-
mowing business at the age of 14 before
building websites and a search engine called
Gatewaytothenet - and he hasn't slowed down
since. Today, however, Lemp is playing the native
advertising game with his latest
project, Revcontent. The company has
skyrocketed in its two years of
operation, earning more than $200 million in
revenue since its launch. Lemp’s unique
experiences throw some of the most common
entrepreneurship tips right out the window. Here
are 8 lessons that Lemp has learned over the
years.

3. You Don’t Have to Fund Your Start-Up
Today, it's easier than ever to raise money for your
start-up with creative techniques such
as crowdfunding. “One thing many people don’t
realize is the true cost to taking in funding too early
and what that can do to a truly world-changing
mission, This is why we have actively chosen from
the start to not be a company that takes funding”
says John Lemp. Instead, Revcontent only seeks
funding from the right strategic partners and steers
clear of the “classic Silicon Valley model, which is
more focused on raising money at all costs and
finding out a business model later.”

4. Build Value, Not Valuation
“Being bootstrapped in all of our existence, we
tend not to think about these things,” Lemp says,
“but as an Entrepreneur and CEO, surprisingly, it
comes up in conversations a lot more than I would
expect.” He adds, “For me, the number is pretty
meaningless because our inherent goal is to build
value, not valuation.” Lemp stands in contrast to a
majority of entrepreneurs, CEOs and investors
who hold valuation in high regard.

5. Use Failure to Solve Problems
Failure should be expected. It’s a great way to
learn and grow. But there’s a common belief
that you fail only once or twice before
experiencing success. For Lemp, failure is a
constant occurence. “The first way we try to
solve any problem typically fails," he says.
"That's why, in the way we look at things, every
decision is a fifty-fifty chance of being right. So
the principle is, if you want to hack that formula,
then make more decisions in less time and learn
from them.” Lemp concludes, “Many people will
tell you success is ‘the opposite of’
failure. That's a lie. It's 'the result of’ failure.”

6. Don't Force Philanthropy
It's essential for start-ups to give back to their
communities. After all, being charitable
can improve your bottom line. Lemp, however,
discovered that you don’t have to force this onto
your team. “We have a culture where by new
initiatives people in our company come up with to
help foster change in the world,” he says. “I love
when our initiatives are interactive and involve the
whole company, such as our tradition of all helping
local families in need to get Christmas gifts for
their children, and also our tradition as a family of
buying, wrapping and sorting through those gifts
together.”

7. Inspiration Comes from Anywhere
There is no one-size-fits-all source of inspiration
for startup founders. For example, Neil
Blumenthal, co-founder Warby Parker, finds
inspiration through Jack Kerouac's 1958
novel The Dharma Bums, while Ben Kaufman,
founder of Quirky, is inspired by the construction
of the Empire State Building. Lemp also finds
inspiration in the Bible and the “Revcontent family
and the brilliance and creativity they use to solve
problems and push each other and me to
constantly be better.”

8. Character Traits Grow Teams
“Unlike many companies, we hire solely on
character traits and not on experience for the
majority of our positions," Lemp says. "We
typically look at all of the resumes, then call back
20 to 30 people for a quick five-minute call. Lastly,
we interview five to 10 people in order to hire for
a single position.” His best advice when hiring is to
ask yourself, “Do you want to work for this
person?” Lemp hires people that he can visualize
being his boss. “Then all I have to do is stay out of
the way and empower them to make their own
decisions, and it tends to work itself out.”

9. Culture is Monumentally Important
No matter the size of your business, you must
always maintain your start-up culture. “When I
was building my last company [Clickbooth], I
suddenly hit a point where we had 135 people
working for me, and the culture I knew and
loved was gone,” Lemp recalls. To resolve this
problem, Lemp asked “the executives and the
team what our values were, what made us
different as a company and what was the
mission as they understood it. Then, we actually
wrote down our mission and our values and
used those to litmus test our future decisions.”

10. Businesses are Built Around People
New businesses often team up with larger,
established businesses in order to develop
a customer base and attain success. And, while
this is a proven tactic, Lemp and Revcontent took
a slightly different approach by working with
people - and not just tapping into a new target
audience. “We have built a business around
people and surrounding ourselves with the best of
the best,” Lemp says. “The media business has
always been a business driven by people, and the
goal of tools such as Revcontent is to empower
media businesses to be in greater control of their
relationships with the users on their sites.”