Being an entrepreneur is REALLY REALLY HARD. You have to persist. You have to put your whole self into it. I often meet with engineer-types and others who are looking to start a new venture. It’s almost always an exciting idea, but it is almost always lacking a few key elements. Nevertheless, I never scoff or worry about what is lacking (although I do try to highlight the missing pieces). The reason I don’t worry, because I know that if that budding entrepreneur works HARD ENOUGH and persists, they will succeed. The business might not, but they will.

Here are a list of the common things I see advising new young companies:
1. Lack of Business model. (or naive business model)
2. Scalability problems. (marketing, sales, etc.)
3. Weak go-to-market plan.
4. Thinking they can do it all themselves. (no team plan)
5. Thinking fund-raising is easy.
6. Thinking of “raising money” before the product.
7. Too MUCH too soon. (too hard)
8. Chicken and Egg problems.

Feel free to ask questions about the above, if you don’t know what I mean.

Oh, and come see me tonight 10/15/09:
http://tytusblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/tytus-to-speak-at-ieee-in-austin.html

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