Open Letter to Would Be Entrepreneurs

Dear Entrepreneur-to-Be,

I am excited for you, I really am. I want you to succeed. It's just that I have been down this road before and experience has taught me to be reserved and analytical rather than enthusiastic and passionate. I don't want you to make some of the same mistakes I've seen repeated dozens of times by people with great ideas, some better than yours. I can almost see it coming so I want to warn you. I want to give you some advice. Take it or leave it, but please understand I only offer it because I care about you and I want to see your idea come to life in a magnificent way. There is a lot I would like to tell you and maybe we can talk at length some other time. But for now there are only two things I want to share because if you forget these two things you won't have a chance. 

1. Don't count on your idea for a paycheck. If you need a paycheck get a job. Your idea and dream to build a business is an investment. By definition that means you are going to give up some things now (time, money, freedom) in order to get rewards later. This is the biggest mistake I have seen your predecessors make. They need a check so they rush to market, or they appear desperate in front of customers or they beg others to invest in their new venture so they can keep paying their mortgage. Your startup is not supposed to provide you with a paycheck. It is supposed to develop a product that you can convince others to buy. All of its dollars need to be spent developing that product. If you take a paycheck you will be starving your product of the dollars it needs to grow into a business.


2. Sell something. Don't ask for money from investors or family members. Don't go out and rent space or design letterhead. Don't do anything until you have sold something to someone who doesn't know you and does not care about your family. Until you can sell something to a stranger you don't have a sellable product. Selling to friends and family is receiving charity. You might say, "But I need money to build my product." Bill Gates and Paul Allen did not have a product when they sold their idea for a product to IBM. If you cannot sell your product or your idea nothing else matters.

The world is full of people with great ideas who sit around designing their logos and floor planning their office space. They build beautiful web sites, spend money on nice business cards and network with their new peer group of "entreprenuers." Don't be them. Do the hard stuff. Go out and sell and do it because you love the product, not because you need a paycheck. If you do this I PROMISE I'll be jumping up and down with a smile on my face the next time we see each other.

Best,
Joey