Wisdom from the experts – ‘Founders at Work’

Before they were heroes, they were just normal people. Read about how the following technology legends created their empires:

  • Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development
  • Max Levchin, founder of PayPal
  • Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple

“Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days” discusses how the stories of how these people made it. Author Jessica Livingston is a founding partner at ”Y Combinator”, a seed-stage venture firm and organizer of ”Startup School”. Thanks to her research and interviews with 32 startup founders of successful technology firms, we have an amazing glimpse of the earliest days of startups that have become part of today’s business lexicon.

Here is a list talking about the early patterns these innovators went through:

  • Passion is key to success. You absolutely must be passionate about your idea and be prepared to follow a sometimes labyrinthine road in pursuit of your dream.
  • Don’t get stuck on the first idea. Sometimes the best ideas morph into something entirely new and exciting — the one Big Idea that best addresses the needs of potential customer.
  • Business plans can be essential, but be prepared to change them, over and over.
  • Don’t let anyone tell you no when your heart says yes. Ignore conventional advice and be prepared to take some big risks. Be “unencumbered by reality.”
  • Be persistent.

November 3, 2008 | Filed Under Interesting 

comments

Leave a Reply