From the VC’s Corner (22): Even the Solo Entrepreneur Can Win the War
Attitude influences the outcomes of our life. Focusing on the good and on the learnings, we become better and better. When a friend of mine, running an exquisite boutique focused on shopper marketing & industrial design, started to ask himself about potential paths for future development, liquidity and exists, it all boiled down to the necessity of having a mentor.
There are frameworks which provide reasonable solutions to this kind of problems like 80% of the time; although a reasonable solution might not always be the best solution for a specific situation. Mentoring, which includes a combination of advisory, coaching, championship and psychological insights, helps the founder grasp why frameworks exist and identify ways to fixing each problem at hand.
In any and every field, the path from beginner to master is paved by asking the question “Why?” — the best question to learn and develop insights about a particular field. It’s a question the founders should ask, and also their mentors.
Some say solo entrepreneurs have less chances of attracting venture capital and growing, as this tells something about themselves (like relationship building, or the lack of.) Not necessarily true. Why? Because if they’ve been very selective with the early team and always focus on the clients’ needs, they can run a lifestyle biz and still make time for creativity, inspiration, while building resiliency. Sometimes they drive energy from interior, maybe just plunging into some specific design work, tweaking it to perfection (achieving thus mastery,) or by networking and building relationships.
It’s empowering not to need VC, but if you do it, better raise when you don’t need it; and be very careful with a VC who has not raised a fund within the last five years.
The biggest lesson is to focus on customers’ feedback and use it to develop and improve your product and service. The entrepreneur must always be focused on making sure every customer is a satisfied one, even when in reality this cannot be achieved across the whole spectrum.
My friend is so lucky to work with an A class team, while striving for perfection in execution; and they don’t have an overly inflated view of themselves. I’d definitely love to help him through some of their hardest problems.
A great entrepreneur will always make her-/himself space, be consumer driven. I know founders who personally respond to many of them (clients); they need the human experience from the customers. Their creativity comes from understanding the customers and that would feed them for weeks to come. For them, the drive they feel and their energy come from experience.
I think the founder should love learning, never give up and keep fighting with the constant challenges that come with being in the tranches, even if she/he’s a solo general. Success is not all about money, is a saying.
My today’s preferred: a book — Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, by Robert Cialdini.
