Letters From a Startup Founder: A letter to all who believe
Hi, my name is Alejandro Magallanes. I’m a super competitive nerd that loves tacos too much.
4 years ago, I was an overconfident college grad with the idea that starting a business was easy. Well, I was WRONG!
This is 1 of 6 letters that I’ll be writing to the people that have helped in the beautiful roller coaster of startups. C’ LA VIE!
A couple of weeks ago, I was filling out an application to an accelerator program the final question of the application was “What makes you special?”
The first thing that popped to my mind was my mom & 1st grade. Growing up I had a pretty BIG head. I remember the day my mom sat me down before school and told me that if anyone ever says anything about my head to tell them “the reason my head was big was because my brain was bigger”.
Just picture it. An 8th-year-old 1st grader standing around waiting for school to start. A group of students approaching, the wind blowing behind their windbreakers, slow-motion music playing in the background, the leader of the kids' group steps up, tries to say something about my big head and my instant response was that my brain was bigger. I can almost track my overconfidence as an adult to my first week of grade school.
The reason that story came to mind is because my mom has always been there to believe in me. She was the first person to believe in me.
As an adult and aspiring entrepreneur, there have been dozens of people that have also BELIEVED IN ME.
Every founder needs to have 3 types of believers in their corner.
- The personal/emotional believers
- The academical believers
- The technical believers.
The personal/emotional believers.
These are the type of friends that plant the initial seed of anything is possible. The friends that light a fire under your butt when you start slacking. These are also the friends that will keep you humble you by reminding you of some of the silliest moments in your life like that time you once tried to microwave ice cream because it was too cold. These are the people that will let you borrow $80 right before Christmas break so you can visit your family.
Most of all, these are the believers that will pick you up when you are down.
Thank you to all my personal/emotional believers.
The academical believers.
These are the people that saw something special. You archnemesis teacher in high school that made you step up your game. (Wink Wink Mr. Bishop. The game is afoot). The college professor that somehow convinced you to do something different. Even the boss that promoted you when you thought you were not ready. These are the believers that know you have the drive to keep learning.
Thank you to my academical believers.
The technical believers
These are the people that have experience in your startup. The developers, salesman, marketing experts, coaches, and successful professionals. The people that took the time to have coffee at the two local coffee shops. The ones that receive your texts at 10 pm because you couldn’t sleep. The ones that make sure you don’t go on a 6-month chase trying to do something that can be done in 6 hours. The ones that believed enough to share their time, their experience, and their friendship for an opportunity to teach from their experience.
Thank you to all my technical believers.
This has been a beautiful journey we have been over the last 4 years. I can honestly say we would have ended up packing shop if it wasn’t for all the people that believed. I can’t thank you enough.
Let’s keep moving, let’s keep trucking and most of all let’s keep growing.
Hope you enjoyed the 1 of 6 letters in the series “Letters From a Startup Founder”
Be on the lookout for next week’s letter: A letter to Family & Friends.
