XeAlgo

A Failed Entrepreneur

In case you’re wondering whom the title is referring to, I’m speaking about myself. As much as it sucks to admit this, It’s time I do. I’m a failed entrepreneur. The reason I say this is simple. I did all I could to create a startup but simply didn’t have what it takes to make it happen - or was it that I didn’t have who it takes? That’s the overall theme of this article and I’m hoping to get some feedback going as well as possibly stir up some motivation and for others walking in similar shoes. 

Well for kickstarters (which I have two projects listed on that were approved but never got started) what defines a startup? Well I thought I knew the answer to this back in October of 2010 but through the course of tredging through the mud, I discovered a startup is simply a team of people that share a common goal and have an idea. That’s probably about the most watered down version of the definition you’ll hear, but in reality even the most successful startups began as little more than that - whether they begain in someones basement or within a multi-billion dollar corporate office. The team is what defines a startup much more so than the product or services the company offers or plans on developing, because simply put, plans, direction and ideas can, will and often must change in order to keep with current trends and market demand.

It wasn’t until recently however that I realized that even though I had discovered what the definition of a startup was, I still approached it with the mindset that, the startup was built around a product and for over a year, I allowed myself to be so consumed with my original vision, I completely ignored the input and and ideas of my team, dubbing them at least in my mind as “stupid ideas”. I think now you can see why I call myself a failed entrepreneur. Even though I spent hundreds of hours writing code, managing my team, setting up meetings, assiging everyone tasks, etc.. I realize now that I was going about everything completely wrong. 

Here’s the conflict in this story however. I firmly believe that passion should precede any project and should be the glue that holds the startup together. If a team lacks passion, they lack motivation and without motivation, nothing no matter how hard any one member of that team tries, will ever get done or see the light of day. Therein lays the core reason I believe the startup failed. While my team and I are all geeks and share most of the same interests, our vision and what “makes us tick” is completely different. I’ve been motivated my whole life by video games and creating them, where as my team members were more about playing them rather than making them. In contrast, while I’m a big fan of web and mobile apps, I just wasn’t inspired much to create them where as they all were. 

Compromise? Well compromise is great on paper and can work, but when everyones ideas conflict so greatly, it’s near impossible to find that happy medium. “Let’s make a social drinking app” “well maybe we can make it interactive like a video game in some way”. You see, compromise just doesn’t always work even when everyone is willing. What I’ve began to realize now is that, in order to create a successful startup, you have to not only have a great idea, you’ve got to create the right team from day one or else it’s never going to work….which is why a good majority of startups never make it. Even if the team consists of several star hackers, a handful of amazing graphic artists, a business type person, etc..if they can’t agree on what the product is going to be, they’ll never succeed.

This brings me to another realization: if you want to do something, do it. Don’t sit around crying because you want to do something when you could be using that time TO DO SOMETHING!