“the sky is the limit”

These are some quotes from yesterday’s talk at Stanford (European Entrepreneurship) from Mariana Bozesan.

Mariana’s experience was certainly interesting: she was born in the communist Romania where she grew up at the border of starvation but with a great education and without knowing that women had ever been discriminated. I guess this is a mentality change that made her live, as she says, believing that “the sky is the limit“.

She studied Computer Sciences in Germany and went to an exchange program to Stanford. That changed her life. She worked for big companies (what she considers the “Learning Phase”), she started several companies (in her “Entrepreneurial Phase”), she became an Angel Investor (“Investor Phase”) and she’s now in what she calls the “Integration Phase”: building bridges and making meaning.

She shared experiences and advices on all of these phases. Being an women born in the 60s, entrepreneur, and coming from Europe, she’s a surprising exception. I hope we won’t be an exception for too long.

1. “People who risk might loose, but people who don’t have already lost”
2. “Problems are part of life, but suffering is a choice”
3. “You can study as much as you want, but you’ll never know it all” – “Build an integral team”
4. “ALWAYS put people (customers, employees, partners) first”
5. “Be a life-long learner”
6. “Invest in things you can be proud of”
7. “DARE to take risks”
8. “The world is flat indeed. To be successful you MUST understand it.”
9. “You are always in CHARGE, learn how to take responsibility”
10. “Finding good partners is key, but stay in charge and keep control” – “Become independent thought unique expertise”
11. “Spend 20% on the problem and 80% on the solution”
12. “What really matters is who you are as a person and who you become in the process”
13. Know WHAT you want, WHY you want it and HOW to make it sustainable”
14. “Success without happiness is failure”
15. “Science of Achievement; Art of Fulfillment. Success beyond success is the balance between the two”

make meaning

Great and fun 39 minutes presentation by Guy Kawasaki giving advice for entrepreneurs (in 2006 but still useful)

Some meaningful advice:

1- Make Meaning, not Money: Change the world and by doing that you will attract the right people and will finally make money. 

2- Get going and find soulmates that balance you off

3- Don’t let the bozos grind you down

And some practical advice:

1- Have MAT written down (Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks) – Differentiate Milestones from “ToDos”, write your assumptions and don’t forget that your business is hanging on them, validate them when you can. 

2- 10-20-30: give a 10 slides presentations, take 20 minutes and use minimum 30 point font (I had already heard this one being quoted from him and we’ll definitely apply it on our upcoming VC meeting)

This is the video:

anza event in plug and play

The event was designed for Australian entrepreneurs that were pitching their ideas and living a Silicon Valley experience for 3 days. The third day was open to the public so I could skip in and it was extremely interesting. This is a summary of my main takeaways:

From Ryan Junee “Success Story” (He cofounded Omnisio and in 9 months sold it to YouTube):

- Silicon Valley is all about who you know. The real value that VCs or incubators bring to the company is not money but contacts.

- It’s easy to get a lawyer “for free” in the Valley that accepts to be paid when the company raises funds

- If you think you are the only one with that idea you should talk to more people

- Ideas are great but in the end it’s all about execution

From the Marketing Business Forum with Brian Solis:

- Do you need to be in Blogs, facebook, Twitter (…) if your community is not there? No, don’t waste your time. You should first look and find out who is there.  What happens is that when you look, the community is often there.

- While doing a corporate blog, become the people you want to reach. Don’t promote your product, engage the client in subjects that might be of their interest. Share expertise, connect and grow the community. Participate in other blogs, recognize other blogs and talk about them. Be authentic and listen. Invest time in sharing your ideas. You are not blogging to share your product, you are blogging to share your expertise.

- Blog recommendation Peter Kim. He talks about social media and in this post describes what different companies are currently doing in that area

From the CEOs panel with Susan Haley, Steve Larsen, Larry Mrshall and Jennifer Zanich:

- As a CEO you do everything until you find someone better than you

- A CEO takes responsibility for everything that goes wrong and gives credit to the team for every success

- The CEO is the one with the vision and a great communicator of that vision. The vision is the basic tool to convince investors, team and everyone around the startup.

- Being a CEO is a lonely role. Surround yourself with great mentors and forget about your ego. No one will tell you that you’ve done something great.

- Statistically, first time CEOs are more successful than serial CEOs. They think they are going to be kicked out by the VC so they try harder, they are hungry and they listen, they want to be mentored and they don’t have ego.

- Though times are great, that’s when opportunities present themselves

- The CEO is the DNA of the company

- VCs are not making you a favor. Your approach should be: “I have this great concept. I’m selling a piece of my company and I would like to partner with you” Bring them in; convince them that they really need to be part of your team as a VC.