A Princeton Woodrow Wilson Alum’s Tips For Success In Entrepreneurship
College teaches you about a lot of different subjects, but no school can ever teach you the “correct” way to be an entrepreneur. A while back we presented Princeton alum Danielle Cohen-Shohet’s journey in entrepreneurship. In today’s edition of PIE, I had the opportunity to speak with Timothy Hwang, a Princeton Woodrow Wilson School graduate-turned-entrepreneur who created a political software company from the ground up, about his personal journey in entrepreneurship. Tim’s advice gives a broad framework on how to turn an idea into a product, use time at college effectively, and be successful in the startup world.
The University Scene Is Not Always Conducive to Entrepreneurship
During Tim’s time at Princeton, the environment was not supportive of risk-takers.
“It wasn’t the place where people went to start companies,” Tim said. Although there were resources on campus during his time, many of his classmates went into venture capital or related fields as opposed to pure play entrepreneurship (a startup focused on a product). The stigma was that generally Princetonians don’t go on to become entrepreneurs.
In spite of this stigma, Tim made the best of his situation by finding a close-knit community of folks who were entrepreneurially minded and using them as a resource in spite of the prevailing culture that might have been on campus. Outside of pursuing entrepreneurship, Tim took courses that helped him develop a skill set useful for the field he was passionate about — politics. He also took many computer science courses to give him the framework to understand software and eventually use this to make FiscalNote. In his words, “As CEO of a car company, you would want to know how cars are manufactured.”
From Idea to Business Plan
One of the key factors to success in any market for a good is that the founders must be passionate about their product or service. Their passion allows them to “solve a problem that you are willing to spend a lot of time with,” Tim said. It’s useful to keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to make money. In FiscalNote’s case, the company became successful in part due to the passion and motivation of its founders, which led to the product becoming more tailored to fit a real need in the market. Tim’s experiences of running his own Super PAC and having intricate knowledge of the market dynamics in politics made him uniquely suited to being successful with FiscalNote. When you’re deciding what your business should be about, find a field you are willing to dedicate time and resources to mastering.
If he didn’t have that knowledge, he would not have been able to start this company straight out of college. This brings us to the next point — where to turn to for experience and information.
The Startup Ideologies
Tim, like many others in the startup community, turned to people like Paul Graham, Jason Webkind, etc., in trying to think of how to make a startup. Learning from others is important to gain the fundamentals of business development, but at a certain point, it is necessary to create strategies based on your own experience. For example, Tim mentioned that “There are a lot [of entrepreneurial methods] I do not agree with, like lean startups (the idea that businesses continually implement and experiment with their product). They are great when building a consumer application, but not great for a company trying to grow rapidly with an intensive idea.”
Tim stressed that since every company is different, and every product is different, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. After all, when looking for funding, there is often only one chance to pitch your idea, so it is important to perfect your product.
Straight from College to Corporate
There are many entrepreneurial figures that say you should work in corporate America to see how Fortune 500s are started. But Tim says that there is more nuance in starting a business. There is room for young people to become CEOs and founders of successful ventures. Similar to the concept of product-market fit, where a product must meet the needs of those who will buy it, Tim has the idea of “founder-market fit.” This is the most important component for someone to have in order to build a successful startup — not necessarily if they have years of experience in corporate America. Founders must be well-versed in their field: Tim was an incredibly politically active member of campus and worked closely on a myriad of state and national level campaigns. By the time he was starting FiscalNote, he had a very good sense of the political field in America and where the market needed a product. His knowledge that FiscalNote would improve the country’s political ecosystem was clear to him — but the greatest challenge in any business is translating that to others.
Startups = Sales
“Startups come down to one things and it’s just sales — the entire thing is just sales,” Tim said about the number one factor to successful startups. “It is selling your idea in the beginning to investors and venture capitalists, selling the idea to customers, selling it to potential executives, engineers, and employees to join the company with their skills. Sales drives a startup and serves as the critical backbone of a business.” Tim recounts how even today “two thirds of [my job] is just selling — getting on the phone and speaking to someone and selling.” He says that it’s both an innate trait and a learned experience — learning how to communicate effectively and being able to drive revenue and drive your point across is the single biggest factor for growth a founder can focus on. In the case of FiscalNote, when presented with startups to invest in, they see many founders with amazing, market-fitted products that they cannot invest in because the revenues and sales are too low. For the college student looking to make a company, it is good to realize that a great product does not always sell itself and that the most successful company is the one that can sell the most.
Keeping Up to Date
Near the end of our conversation I asked Tim how he keeps informed, and he said he reads newspapers like the Wall Street Journal to keep up to date with everyday news. But when he informs himself on his sector, technology, he stays away from news publications and their “hype” and sticks to contacting the heads of the industry and looking into industry papers to keep informed. This kind of information is useful to anyone trying to keep current in their market.
That’s all for this issue! Talking with Tim showed the perspective of someone who went right out of college and made a successful company — the dream of many. His insights are useful to anyone college age (or not) looking to break into the scene. Find out more about FiscalNote at www.fiscalnote.com. Read more PIE interviews here!
