In an effort to better understand the mindset of entrepreneurs, I conducted interviews with entrepreneurs. After more than 50 interviews, it’s safe to say that every single interview has been highly insightful. As sharing is caring, here are the randomly selected golden nuggets.
The entrepreneurs interviewed include:
- From “no longer in business” to $800 M in exit
- Ages 21 to 60's
- Reside in Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia.
In the first part of the series, there will be no commentary, but only the rephrased quotes from the entrepreneurs to preserve the authenticity and the impact. 10 entrepreneurs’ responses are selected randomly for each question.
Here is the question,, and the entrepreneurs’ responses. Please leave a constructive comment, and hope this helps in your quest in understanding the entrepreneurs.
Question 1:
Why did you decide to start the company?
Responses:
“I saw a gap in education for a long time and no one addressed it. My intention was not to start own company, and wanted to be employed and develop the product. But the parents and the circumstance pushed me into starting the business. I thought I should give it a go at least once in the lifetime.”
“I have always been health conscience. I also run Ironman, so healthy food that also tastes good is important. I tried to make own healthy food, but usually didn’t taste very good. Then I met a good partner in the current chef, who makes healthy food that is also tasty. Other triathlon running friends also liked the food. Healthy & Tasty were the key factors. I had the idea for a year, but finally formalized after a year when I met the chef who could execute the vision of combining healthy and tasty.”
“I started my own design company as a risk management. When I worked for a large multi-national corporation during the 2009 Financial Crisis, I witnessed many retrenchment and seeing people not in control of their destiny. A friend of mine with a family, suddenly lost his job, and didn’t know what to do. Also, in the design sector, the ‘air is very thin at the top’, as there are limited positions available for designers in a managerial or executive role. After the 3rd child, I felt that it was safer to start own company than to continue working for the corporate.”
“To become an entrepreneur, it has to start from something. From the childhood, I always started something. I was close to the relatives, and lived with grandmother. In my childhood, I organized concerts, and organized songs, etc. One time, when my nephew was 3, I took paperbox, cut a hole in the box and “played” TV. We put on a show for 1 ruble (USSR) and collected money. Even in school, I had a loud voice, and was able organize events. As an adult, I worked in the stock exchange and during maternity leave, I felt I had to start something ‘now’ and become an entrepreneur. I looked forward to selecting the partners and go through the journey of entrepreneurship. I was surrounded by really smart people, and the ideas started coming.”
“On the first of the first job, riding through Tampa to Clearwater, in 1986, passing through Howard Franklyn bridge, and looking at the beautiful sun, I realized that there were would be limited time for vacation, and retirement will only come in 60’s if I worked for someone else. I thought I would be missing out the entire life time of beautiful moments. I wanted more freedom. Do I want to live for 2 weeks of vacation in a year? I said “No way”. And, the only way to get out of that was to have a control over my life, and become financially independent. It was so clear in the head. I already knew then that I would need to own a company. I didn’t want to work for someone and retire when 60. In addition, the employer was a pharmaceutical company, and there was a huge gender inequality. Pay, promotion, etc — unfair compensation. I was a superstar, but another guy who was lazy, kept getting raises and promotion. Many female started their own business to break the glass ceiling. I didn’t think I would get anywhere in this company. I stayed with the company for four years and nothing happened and decided that this was the right time to start the company.”
“I am doing hobby as a professional work. I started as a graphics designer. I started my own business at age 15. My mother needed to sign papers for company registration. When a company asked for company profile, I didn’t really know what to provide. But, eventually, I learned that I can make money doing this — used to make logo. .”
“I was finishing up my PhD. We built an intelligent module in the areas of public transport, phone voice recognition research. Worked with Dutch Railway, Dutch Scientific Research. We won a rule based competition from Groenigen to compete in a project. For some reason, I was looking for a start up company — not sure why a start up, but did not want to work for a large companies like IBM.”
“I worked as a recruiter for six years. I observed many problems in HR. I like to solve problems and create new stuff — doing the same thing became boring. To address some of the pain points, wanted to do something that was more challenging and more rewarding. Takes a lot of energy to start a company. But I had the ambition and the drive.”
“I like to be independent. When I worked for a company, I didn’t feel that I was in control. Also, in terms of timing, have been in China for a long time, and this was the right time to start a company, before returning to Europe to leverage the relationship and network developed in China. Five years from now, the network would not be as strong.”
“It started in the childhood — 7th and 8th grade, I started making websites for people I knew. Doctors, parents’ friends, etc. Mom is also an entrepreneur, and was inspired by her. I wanted be self-employed at some point. First website was for the class — it contained homework, class pictures, etc. One time, I forgot to post the homework on the website, and no one did the homework. I had books delivered to home (as part of home study). I learned online marketing and marketing, finished the school and studied MBA in Frankfurt, and attended entrepreneur club, and through the club visited start up conferences. I went Start Summit in Switzerland, and met Pat who wore wooden bow tie. I didn’t want to work for a bozo, and wanted to work on the own project in eCommerce. Pat already had ideas with two other co-founders. I invested 15 to 20 hours a week into the project, but it became more serious. Also did internship with consultancy bus company before joining the company as a co-founder.”
