Ultimately, I didn’t quite find the company I wanted to join, but I met more than 100 entrepreneurs and realized that all these entrepreneurs were just as unqualified as I was. If I wanted to be this retailer of the future, or if I wanted to join the retailer of the future, I could just start it.
Entrepreneurs have the flexibility and the ability to do things that large companies simply cannot. Could a large company pull off a trick like Amyris, going from anti-malaria medicine to next-generation fuel?
A big part of the accelerator is to help scientists become entrepreneurs. I like to think about each business being built on three major areas: creating the value, creating the product, and extracting the value. We provide help in each of these areas.
The dream for many millennial women is to make a difference as social or political entrepreneurs. They are using the social media and marketing tools they have mastered to empower less fortunate women and direct them onto career tracks that women have traditionally avoided, like science and technology.
Entrepreneurs need to recognize that, especially in the digital domain, they are unlikely to come up with something that is going to be permanently on top, that impermanence and ephemerality is the nature of the beast.
I have a good eye for great projects, talent, and entrepreneurs.
For most of the 20th century, we didn’t just enjoy economic success in Michigan, we defined it. Our innovators and entrepreneurs created the world’s most productive companies, and our unions made sure that productivity led to broad middle class prosperity.
One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is not understanding the relationship they have with their investors. At times, they confuse VCs with their friends.
There are a lot of subtle things that are harder to stamp out of a culture in terms of male entrepreneurs being mentored more than female entrepreneurs… male entrepreneurs getting several strikes against them before they’re kind of let go, whereas female entrepreneurs, it’s kind of one strike and you’re out.
Chinese entrepreneurs have to implement their work under the leadership of the Party and the government – it is very clear.
American Made is not just an event. It’s a movement to spotlight and support the next generation of creative entrepreneurs who are turning their passion for making into thriving small businesses.
Entrepreneurs have a great ability to create change, be flexible, build companies and cultivate the kind of work environment in which they want to work.
As entrepreneurs, we must constantly dream and have the conviction and obsession to transform our dreams into reality – to create a future that never existed before.
I think many people go to business school and learn ways to play it safe, ensuring that they avoid some of the pain that entrepreneurs endure while taking less calculated risks.
The world’s most successful entrepreneurs play hard, but they work even harder.
As entrepreneurs, we often get pressured into hiring an industry executive. While it’s good to hire people with experience, it can also be a stumbling block because they think about the business the same way everyone else does.
I don’t have any problem with government helping entrepreneurs and businesses.
Every parent pursues the best possible opportunities for their child while climbing over obstacles and limitations each day. So in a way, all parents are entrepreneurs.
While the line between stress, deep anxiety, and depression often blurs, most entrepreneurs struggle with broad mental health issues at various points in their lives.
That’s what America’s all about. Entrepreneurs who can start a business in their basement and have it grow into a global company – that’s exactly what we want.
Real entrepreneurs have what I call the three Ps (and, trust me, none of them stands for ‘permission’). Real entrepreneurs have a ‘passion’ for what they’re doing, a ‘problem’ that needs to be solved, and a ‘purpose’ that drives them forward.
People in private equity complain that they have so much capital and so few places to invest. But you have lots of entrepreneurs trying to raise money at the low end and find that they can’t get funding because of this mismatch. I think that there is an opportunity there.
Closing the gap for women entrepreneurs should be a priority for the federal government – and yet the Small Business Administration has failed in their promise to women business owners.
Whenever I talk to people who founded a company, I often like to ask the prehistory questions ‘When did you meet? How long have you been working before you started the company?’ A bad answer is, ‘We met at a networking event a week ago, and we started a company because we both want to be entrepreneurs.’
We got government off the backs of the people of India, particularly off the backs of India’s entrepreneurs. We introduced more competition, both internal competition and external competition. We simplified and rationalized the tax system. We made risk-taking much more attractive.
I’m a venture capitalist. I like to say my job is to help and support entrepreneurs. I can play a leadership role, but my organization can’t be the leader.
For male and female entrepreneurs alike, having a woman investor can bring credibility when discussing product positioning and expansion opportunities.
Internet entrepreneurs are using technology at every level of their company – from a one-person agency to a small firm, the newest technological advances are interwoven throughout every aspect of Internet-based businesses.
I think you need to have a very strong angel community that is committed to mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
I think, what I would communicate to people, if you are really keen in helping the world, you could spend so much quality time in terms of coaching, learning, providing great energy to the social entrepreneurs.
Most start-up companies fail and it is smart public policy to help entrepreneurs increase their odds of succeeding. But, the biggest loss to our economy is not all the start-ups that didn’t make it: It’s the ones that might have been created but weren’t.
Successful entrepreneurs find the balance between listening to their inner voice and staying persistent in driving for success – because sometimes success is waiting right across from the transitional bump that’s disguised as failure.
I’ve often thought of successful entrepreneurs as individuals who have just the right expertise – at just the right moment – to solve the emerging problems of their time.
By using locally manufactured products, you will be able to help the small entrepreneurs in your area to a great extent.
Our experience is that most entrepreneurs are able to attract debt, even for risky and early stage investments. There are investors who provide debt, but very few who fund through equity.
Not many venture firms have people whose job is to read academic research – on startups, ventures, and entrepreneurs – and gather knowledge from that.
Users and entrepreneurs building new business models off the blockchain means that there are competing interests on how best to scale the network. Linux, also an open source software project, had similar growing pains.
I want to inspire the youth to become entrepreneurs.
We’re really willing to see more and more U.S. entrepreneurs conducting investments in Turkey. I’m optimistic for the future.
With interest rates artificially low, consumers reduce savings in favor of consumption, and entrepreneurs increase their rates of investment spending.
Our efforts in Congress should focus on what we can agree on: investing in the success of local entrepreneurs to create jobs, helping hard-working families get ahead and reducing our spiraling debt.
We want New Hampshire to be a haven for entrepreneurs and inventors – the people who are creating the products and good-paying jobs of the future.
Without properly functioning civil courts, there is no guarantee that innovative entrepreneurs can claim the rewards of their ideas.
When the government takes more money out of the pockets of middle class Americans, entrepreneurs, and businesses, it lessens the available cash flow for people to spend on goods and services, less money to start businesses, and less money for businesses to expand – i.e. creating new jobs and hiring people.
All early entrepreneurs fall prey to the same problem, which is everyone believes that if you are super intense in the beginning, work long hours, that you can create something quickly and that entrepreneurship is almost something that happens overnight.
I have met many entrepreneurs who have the passion and even the work ethic to succeed – but who are so obsessed with an idea that they don’t see its obvious flaws. Think about that. If you can’t even acknowledge your failures, how can you cut the rope and move on?
Entrepreneurs and rowers show characteristics of curiosity and wanting to learn.
Too many entrepreneurs think their valuation is the real economic price of their company. It’s not. It’s not a real economic price unless you are selling 100%.
I’ve come to a real understanding of the enormity of what owner entrepreneurs do in founding great businesses. They are rare and a thing of art in many ways.
But economic recovery must be earned. And it will be earned by entrepreneurs and it will be earned by small businesses.
