When can I pick your brain?
Because every startup’s purpose is (should be at least) to build things that haven’t existed before to make people’s lives easier — the founder’s journey to get there is always uncertain. The only thing that is clear is that rejections, misunderstandings, frictions and any other kind of front wind becomes daily business. Hence, frustration and cluelessness on how to proceed is often the challenge for many entrepreneurs. If one could only pick another founder’s brain that has been in this situation … (!!) … but where?
A friend of mine, a globally recognized professional athlete told me once that “the best doctor for an athlete — is only another athlete ’cause only an athlete knows what it means to have pain in the body — while at the same time keeping the exercising rhythm high in order to achieve the goal. Just because you feel a pain — it doesn’t mean you pause … it only means you have to work out differently and reduce stress around the pain part … a doctor would only advise you to do things he learned at school ‘for normal people’ — not for professional athletes that must win!”
Doesn’t it sound AMAZING … ?! … “normal people vs. athletes that must win”. Wow!
Translating that to the startup world — it means that only entrepreneurs that also “ate shit” but eventually made it are the “athletes” that give real life advice to other entrepreneurs that “must win”. Thankfully we live in era where sharing lessons learned is not only common — but is almost an expectation from the environment we live and work in.
With the rise of the sharing economy it has never been easier to get access to founders and their lessons learned.
“Be wise and learn from the experiences of other founders” — Tommaso db
Supercharge your startup
Startup accelerators are a great venue for new ventures to start out with when offered a program. While many claim they are “accelerators” but only offer co-working space, others have programs that empower a startup to learn from and connect with other entrepreneurs in a vetted form.
Bootstraplabs in San Francisco, for instance, there is a boutique accelerator that beyond managing one of Angel.co’s biggest syndication group, it provides startups a tool where founders requirements in a specific time are matched with advisor skills — that can then connect. It expedites time to market — as things get solved much quicker.
At Mind The Bridge, startups from overseas get introduced via a program to Silicon Valley’s do’s and don’ts. Topics such as communication, culture, incorporation, growth and exit are lessons taught from local entrepreneurs that usually have lived and done business on different continents.
Draper University is Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurship program and accelerator founded by Tim Draper. Startup bootcamp and crash course in business and entrepreneurship. Next to Draper TV, an online platform where founders can subscribe and consume startup knowledge for every stage — Draper University is a platform for founders to meet, learn and connect with Silicon Valley’s most recognized founders such as Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla, xSpace, …), Nate Blecharczyk (AirBnB) and many others.
As a founder, it’s not a question of if to join such an accelerator — but which one offers your startup business the greatest advantages that supercharge your activities. Find the accelerator that is focused on your space such as Wearables, Software, Enterprise, Consumer, Apps etc. and participate in the program.
How to pick a brain
In one of my recent talks where I share entrepreneurial lessons learned with founders, such as with my speeches at Draper University embedded above — two founders came up with a very compelling story, solving a problem I care a lot about. We got to meet several times and finally it turned into me joining the advisory board — helping them today with getting things done.
Now, lean back — watch the summary video of the speech — and DO WHAT IT TAKES!
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Originally published at whatittak.es.
