The document provides entrepreneurial lessons learned from Sam W. Beal's presentation including: 1) Make yourself valuable by combining skills, learning from failures, taking action, attracting luck, and conquering fear. 2) Expectations of near-term change are often overestimated while long-term change is underestimated. 3) Have a plan B in case plan A does not validate assumptions or attract customers, and conserve funding until assumptions are validated.

1. Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned By Sam W. Beal presentation SCU Jan 18, 2012 linkedin/in/samwbeal

2. “ The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable.” Combine Skills Fail Forward Find the action Attract Luck Conquer Fear Write simply Learn Persuasion Scott Adams WSJ 4/9/11

3. “ The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable.” Combine Skills Fail Forward Find the action Attract Luck Conquer Fear Write simply Learn Persuasion Scott Adams WSJ 4/9/11

4. Catch a paradigm shift, if you can We tend to over estimate near-term change And under estimate long-term change expectation reality entry exit

5. What business are you in? Technology Products Solutions Bigger Faster Cheaper Time to Market antifuse

6. Plan on needing a Plan B Don’ t bet all your capital on Plan A Conserve funding until you validate assumptions with real users.

7. Validation is tricky

8. Validation is tricky Look for evidence that your assumptions are wrong. Keep looking. Will your customer refer the product? Is he still using it 3 or 6 months later? PS: Anything that takes money or attention away from your target customer is competitive.

9. Plan B examples A B C AOL Yahoo Google Facebook ISP Search Search edu directory walled garden + Netscape sold - $$$ yahoo 2.0 ? display ad verticals Plan D? adwords search + video + mobile + social walled garden the future web

10. Can’ t do Plan B, our patent is on Plan A Xilinx 2010 A patent doesn’t mean you can make it or sell it 1998

11. You can’t bluff your customers

12. You can’t bluff your customers JigSawtek Customer VP “ There on the other side of 101, you can ’ t miss it.” CEO “ If you don ’ t buy our company at my price, I ’ ll take it to your competitor.”

13. You can be too early

14. If you are too early, you need Deep pockets Partners – Alliances, Evangelists Patience

15. Build a team, don’ t be the team.

16. Good ideas aren’ t enough Execution is often the difference between success and failure. A lot of smart people in the room is no guarantee of success Be a Samurai .

17. Jason Calacanis*