Since the original dot-com boom, entrepreneurs seeking to create venture-capital-worthy startups have sought the Holy Grail. This can be in the form of a lucrative exit, a buyout, or a business so successful that a lucrative IPO occurs. Venture capitalists (VCs) also seek this, with the tacit knowledge that far more investments will fail than those that succeed. The successes, the home runs, the rare ‘unicorns,’ make it well worth the risk. The spoils of the winners compensate for the lemons.
There exists a certain cachet about startups. Entrepreneurs bask in the glow of an aura that surrounds those creating the new, the ground breaking, the “Next Big Thing.” The phrase, “I’m working on a startup” sometimes is received with an appreciative nod, endorsement or confirmation of the high station of this pursuit. Add in a trendy location, such as Oakland or Brooklyn, and the adulation approaches near-worship proportion.
Being an entrepreneur is about much more than earning the admiration of those who fawn over emerging technology or startups in various stages of development. It requires dedication, planning, identification of a market, revenue forecasting, agile minds and a flexible approach. Technical development and working tested code takes a long time.
Many pitfalls in development
The wise entrepreneur knows (or learns) to beware of many pitfalls. In the development phase, a time-consuming and often all-encompassing period, there may be no money coming in and only minimal support or cheerleading while teams work through the obstacles that abound in the process. Time can go upside-down, as long sessions of coding, product testing, debugging and rewriting eat up hours on end.
Often this work puts the entrepreneurs and their team in a void, a workspace and time-management pursuit far outside the norms of what others may consider everyday life. The personal and social implications are intense. The savvy entrepreneur knows to be aware of these issues and to arrange life within these constraints.
Then the fetish issues begin to appear. Entrepreneurs, beware! VC firms and many entrepreneurs obsess on the meme of the moment, the hot category. This can be a prickly subject
Dean Landsman on Digital Strategy
The Startup Fetish: Entrepreneurs, Beware!
By Dean Landsman