Entrepreneurship 101: Learning the basics from an all-star and celebrity cast
Hello! If you’re just joining, WELCOME! This is my third post in a series where I share my personal journey launching my startup, Mayven. Read post number one here & post number two here.
If you are a returning reader, thank you for coming back. I’m excited to continue sharing my journey with you.
***
In my last post, I left you with quite the cliffhanger. A former colleague recommended I take the Selfmade class for entrepreneurs. However, the class’ hefty (though totally justifiable) price tag of $2,200 didn’t align all too well with my decision to bootstrap the business as leanly as possible. So, I took a leap of faith and applied for a fully-funded scholarship from Office Depot.
Did I get it? 😬
Yes! A week after applying to the Selfmade scholarship, I was delighted to see the following subject line in my emails:
Congrats! You’ve been awarded a Selfmade Scholarship
I immediately opened the email to find the message below:
For the first time on my startup journey, I felt validated. Receiving a message like the one above, especially from someone who doesn’t know me personally, is the most rewarding feeling. Having someone else pick up a $2,200 tab is a close second. Attending the Selfmade course would be my first formal training in entrepreneurship. I couldn’t wait to flex some new mental muscles and earn a credential that would support my business idea.
If you decide to dip your toes into entrepreneurship, something you will learn is that things move fast. While we most often hear about billionaire entrepreneurs with unlimited resources, most entrepreneurs work full-time at their “day job”, have shoestring budgets until they obtain their first round of funding, and balance family commitments (or in my case, all three!). At this stage, time is more precious than money. So there’s no time to waste.
In true entrepreneurial fashion, class with Selfmade started just one week after I received my scholarship and two weeks after I applied. The course, conducted entirely online over 10 weeks, consisted of a weekly live lesson on a specific theme taught by Selfmade’s founder Brit Morin. Brit talks the talk and walks the walk. She founded her first company Brit + Co at 25 years old, which has raised $42.6 million in funding to date (Crunchbase) and founded Selfmade in 2020. In addition to Brit’s classes, at least one other guest speaker would teach a complementary class on a specific topic from the Selfmade curriculum (below).
These were not just any guest speakers, though. These women are the crème de la crème of the startup world. Whether it was learning from Bethenny Frankel (Founder & CEO of Skinnygirl) on idea execution or Gwyneth Paltrow (Gwyneth needs no introduction!) on building a purposeful brand, each class and speaker proved to be not only inspirational but left me with tactical takeaways on how to be successful. Some of the speakers even sent us home with “cheat-sheet” materials that we can refer to as we continue to organize our businesses. A few examples of what I received include an Instagram self-audit guide, an intellectual property matrix, and a template for writing a cold DM from Brit herself. These tips and templates have already saved me countless hours and a lot of stress!
Balancing all this new learning with my day job and family life took dedication. A positive that came from the pandemic (which at this point was still in full swing) was the flexibility I gained by working from home. Also, most of my team members from my “day job” in financial services were in Switzerland and the majority of the classes happened at times when they had already signed off for the day. So, I was able to attend all of the live sessions.
Another huge help was that we were each assigned a coach who would serve as our “go-to” person and host weekly collaboration sessions for my classmates and me. This helped hold me accountable to produce quality homework in return for constructive feedback. It was also an invaluable opportunity to learn from other people I could relate to. My classmates posed all kinds of insightful questions as they too were trying to balance the overwhelming demands of startup life.
Side note: the Selfmade homework proved to be a VERY important lesson for me. None of the homework or tasks asked of us were that hard. The most challenging part was carving out the time to do them. When I enrolled in this course, I promised myself I would be FULLY committed. To me, that meant prioritizing homework assignments and trying to make every live class. The overlapping and seemingly endless responsibilities that come with being a mom and (at the time) a full-time employee at a demanding job meant this wasn’t always easy for me. Signing up for a course with deadlines and milestones kept me on track and held me accountable to myself and what I had set out to achieve.
Tip: If you aren’t able to take a course, write down goals and milestones for yourself and make every effort to achieve them.
Before I knew it, the last week of Selfmade had already arrived. Called “Pitch Week”, everyone enrolled in the course could apply to present a short pitch in front of the entire class, Brit and coaches included!! The competition was fierce as there were hundreds of students vying for only 10 pitch spots. Unfortunately, my application did not get picked 😢. But I still absorbed an incredible amount just by attending the class. I learned how my classmates who were selected packed loads of valuable information into a two-minute time slot. After each pitch, the coaches asked questions Shark Tank style, and I got to witness these incredible women think on their feet and provide articulate, pointed responses.
In the end, Selfmade seemed to fly by. One of the most important lessons I learned is that there is no time like the present to put yourself out there and show the world your business idea. Embracing that mentality, I went to work building the Mayven website.
Naturally, this led to a pretty big question:
how do I actually build a website for the Mayven platform when I had zero tech experience?
I’ll be covering this in my next blog post (you can follow me here to make sure you don’t miss it). Until then, have a great week!
