🎙 Inventive Journey | Real Stories From the Startup Survival Club

One of the biggest mistakes I think we see is people thinking about intellectual property too late. They start to run up against those deadlines and lose out on some of those property rights. My biggest piece of advice would be to think about intellectual property early and often. Intellectual property is one of those things you can lose out on. And not just from the typical ways that we hear inventors and entrepreneurs complain that someone else is ripping them off. Sometimes they are their own worst enemy as far as making sure they are getting their intellectual property on time.

First and foremost find a mentor. Find somebody who has what you want, is going where you want to go, is willing to mentor you on how to get there, and listens to what they have to say.

I think it is always good for entrepreneurs to keep an eye out as to what the competitors are doing. Not a fear necessarily but, I think you need to be aware of other companies. Being a little bit paranoid about that is actually a good thing. That is one thing we always try to see if our product is differentiated enough and has enough defensibility in the market when we go talk to customers. I would say that is the most important area where we continue to stay focused.

First, don't give up. It's going to get tough. Don't think it is going to be so easy. And then get advice from people you trust their sense of judgment. You need mentorship. Be open to change your idea. Sometimes your original concept can change along the way. So be willing to listen to professional advice and don't give up.

Entrepreneurship is a journey. It never ends. It's not something that you can say I am going to be an entrepreneur today and, then tomorrow it's off. No, if you start entrepreneurship today, you are in it all of your life. It will never stop. When I am saying entrepreneurship is a journey I am also saying be patient. Don't believe all the things you see on social media. Most entrepreneurs are not that successful.

Think in terms of what your audience wants to hear rather than what you want to say. We all get so hung up on these are all things I want to tell people about my company, my brilliance, and my services. And instead, turn it into what are they coming to this for. What is the value that they want? And make that the first thing you give them.

Don't be shy. Do a lot of cold calling. The nice thing with cold calling is they don't see you on the other end. You can just smile and dial. Ask the silly questions. You can always hang up and dial the next person. So don't be afraid of cold calling. The next thing is to have an outlet. You have your 9-5, you have your family, your kids, your side hustle you're trying to do. So I say have an outlet. have a de-stressor. For me, it is snowboarding, so go snowboarding. Running, when you are doing the pirate run, have something like a stress ball with you. Do some meditation.

I think you should start with your own personality and really understand yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. What are you drawn to and what do you avoid? In this game, when there is only a couple of people, and you don't have a lot of structured accountability you, can really go off the rails if you don't pay very close attention to the stuff you know you are going to avoid. It's like driving down a road, and you know there are going to be potholes. Why not plan to avoid them. Just see them ahead of time instead of bouncing your car through those.

I'm a really big fan of finding customers before you start building anything and that is what we did as well. We got early customers who believed in what problem we wanted to solve. And build the platform with some early feedback from them. It really helped us validate the idea we were working on. There were times when investors would be like, no, that's not a great idea. I don't think there is a big market for it. But, because we had so many customers, we could really believe in what we were solving for. I really value having those customers with our life cycle and, I give the same advice to everyone who is building a platform, product, anything. There is nothing better than getting customers involved in your journey early on, even more than investors.

You need to make sure that you are looking at sufficient cash flow to be able to do what you are doing. I think one of the biggest mistakes startups make is they don't recognize the amount of cash it will take to get a business off the ground. It usually takes twice as much as you think and twice as long. So it's really important to be mindful of that.