CHERYL HELLER: It begins with an ultimate
vision.
Not I want to have a successful business.
Not I want to launch a website.
It's the real understanding of a purpose that
creates energy and that aligns everyone around
the same goal.
BRE PETTIS: Frankly, our biggest challenge
as a culture is how do we empower people to
unlock their true potential and explore who
they are.
Because I believe that inside each person
is the potential to have deep, deep powerful
impact on their local community and society
at large.
How do we make that happen?
How do we unlock that?
SARAS SARASVATHY: The way entrepreneurs do
it, they work with what they have and they
look around and say what can I do with this.
JOHN BUTMAN: The really successful ones connect
their ideas to other ideas.
So no idea is totally original.
Most of us have ideas that add to existing
ideas that bring a bit of originality, that
have our own take on things and the really
good ones link into great ideas that have
come before.
MIKI AGRAWAL: The first question that I ask
myself is: What sucks in my world?
Does this thing suck in my world so much that
I want to do something about it?
What sucked in my world?
Having stomachaches every time I ate pizza.
Regular conventional pizza.
Bleached flour, processed cheese, sugar filled
sauces, processed toppings.
That was hurting me.
But I love pizza and I wanted to keep it in
my life, but I couldn't eat that kind of pizza.
Second question is: Does it suck for a lot
of people?
Because if it sucks for just you and you're
like a diva then sorry, but that's probably
not the great business idea.
But if it sucks for a lot of people then business
opportunity.
The final question which is the most important
one is: Can I be passionate about this issue,
cause or community for a really long time?
It takes ten years to be an overnight success.
We often think that like, 'Oh my god, Dollar
Shave Club sold in two years for a billion
dollars.
Oh, look at Instagram—It had ten people,
sold for a billion dollars.
I can do this.'
Those are literally like winning the lottery.
You have to feel like you can sit in that
discomfort for ten years and be passionate
about that issue for ten years.
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: You have to say to yourself,
'What is the worst that could possibly happen?
And then can I live with what is the worst
that could possibly happen?'
You have to live your life recognizing that
a sense of your life is out of control.
That's hard for the average person but that's
par for the course for the entrepreneur.
SARASVATHY: If you want the shortest predictor
of success it's how people actually deal with
failure.
RICHARD BRANSON: There is a very thin dividing
line between success and failure.
Most people who set off in business without
financial backing they fail at sometimes in
their lives.
And I've only just stayed at the right side
of that dividing line.
SARASVATHY: If you think about it for a moment
just by being willing to fail once or twice
and start again, you can increase the probability
of your success.
So failure teaches you not only what not to
do, but also how to do things with a smaller
footprint.
So if failure happens, it's not disastrous.
BRANSON: I also learned the art of delegation.
I have a fantastic team of people who run
the Virgin companies.
I give them a lot of freedom to run the companies
as if they were their own companies.
I give them the freedom to make mistakes and
the Virgin brand is now maybe one of the top
20 brands in the world.
AGRAWAL: I'm really, really deliberate about
the type of people I bring onto the team really
checking their background, seeing if they
really fit.
Before anyone gets hired they have to meet
the whole team, and the team has to give me
their feedback on what they think about this
person.
If they jive well.
It really is culture.
Culture trumps strategy every day of the week,
and twice on Sunday.
BRANSON: You have to be a great listener and
you have to be a great motivator.
You have to be very good at praising and looking
for the best in people.
People are no different from flowers.
If you water flowers they flourish.
If you praise people they flourish, and that's
a critical attribute of a leader.
DAYMOND JOHN: In a relationship, no matter
what it is, you're Batman, somebody else is
Robin.
And often, you're Robin and you allow somebody
else to be Batman, and it makes you much more
powerful.
That's what you see in the most successful
people in the world.
And success is not only money.
Success can be various other things.
People who have overthrown government with
Twitter, arguments say.
So, when people understand their power, they're
constantly seeking to enrich more people as
well as tapping into what they've learned
and how to even become better at being powerful.
CHRIS LOOSE: The most important piece of advice
I like to give them, particularly on the technical
side, is find someone who has totally different
skills from you that you can trust and will
challenge you.
It can help you think through the many aspects
it takes to address to build a business.
AGRAWAL: From a skill set perspective you
need to be opposites.
Oftentimes best friends are like, 'We want
to start a business together.'
That's the fastest way to not becoming best
friends again.
Being opposites is so important.
I'm great at design.
I'm great at the vision.
I'm great at the sort of strategy.
I'm really great at the aesthetic.
I'm really great at the brand.
My partner needs to be good at operations,
manufacturing, warehousing, legal, finance,
all of that stuff that I don't love doing.
I'd rather stay to my zone of genius and have
someone really, really take on their zone
of genius and be in mutual awe of one another.
PETTIS: As I think about what kind of advice
I would give to other entrepreneurs when they
start, I would say it's actually better to
box yourself in and create a rule set for
yourself, a manifesto.
Something that basically says we are going
to live our lives this way.
This is our criteria.
This is our sort of limitations.
These are the things that, this is the sort
of challenge we're going to give ourselves
to stay within these parameters.
LOOSE: The advice I'd give is really to engage
people who've gone through that product development
experience very early on.
They'll have a lot of rules of the road, a
lot of mistakes to avoid, and can really help
make you successful even if you don't have
the deep domain experience.
It's amazing how much young entrepreneurs
who have a passion and enthusiasm and some
really big ideas can engage and draw in people
who have deep experience even before potentially
they could afford them as consultants or employees.
I think as entrepreneurs are dreaming big
you can share that energy, share that vision,
get people involved and really bring in fantastic
folks at a very early stage.
SCARAMUCCI: Every entrepreneur will tell you
when they're going through crisis, number
one: clear your mind.
Accept whatever the possible outcome will
be, and then the steps that you have to take
are non-fear based.
And that's the biggest, biggest problem for
people, because we all have these fears.
You have to remember you're in a 100,000 year
old piece of machinery.
You're the same person that was walking around
in ancient Rome, so you're filled with all
these primordial instincts.
You've got to dial down your fear based instincts,
and you've got to focus on being aggressive
in a time of crisis.
Because if you don't do that, you have a very
high likelihood of failure.
AGRAWAL: People who start businesses for the
exit, most of them will fail because there's
just no true passion behind it.
To really, really succeed you have to have
such deep passion and drive to make it succeed.
When you're going through the worst of times
and you close your eyes, you really have to
remember like oh my god, I've helped so many
people just gain access to clean sanitation.
That's going to keep you going.
Most people can't say that if they're just
trying to sell a tee shirt company.
LOOSE: Look for a platform company.
If you're going to build a company make sure
that if you're successful in one area it can
create value in a number of adjacent areas
because that really justifies bringing in
the investment, building the whole infrastructure,
not just for one product but potentially for
many.
So it's important to have a platform, but
not to lose focus within that platform and
make one crucial bet that ultimately can drive
the early success of your company.
NATHALIE MOLINA NIÑO: There's way more to
the world of investing and of securing capital
than just venture capital.
There's long view investments.
There's debt.
There's crowdfunding.
There are many different options when it comes
to getting funding but the one that dominates
the headlines is venture capital.
The bottom line for me is that there are many
different sources of capital.
It's not a one size fits all regime and we
get fed one single product.
And the reality is a smart founder has to
look around to see what their other options
are.
And I would say this is not just a nice to
have.
This is a critical, critical thing.
The thing that I always tell founders is that
VC might be for you.
It might not be, but let's not romanticize
what it is and how it works.
Please do not take venture capital from any
investor no matter what terms they're giving
you unless you're willing to be fired from
your own company, which is what happens to
a lot of people who end up taking venture
capital.
JOHN: Most people are trying to expand their
portfolio and their brands by operating new
businesses instead of digging into the relationships
that they already have.
Five, 10, 20 years because when you already
have worked with somebody whether it's a relationship
as friends or your community or at the office
or as an investment, the first transaction
is usually the lowest.
It is the 10 transactions afterwards.
Not only the transaction you're having with
the person, it's the fact that that person
is probably another businessperson or has
a relationship and they're out there networking
telling people about how good you are.
And that's exactly where it is.
See, your reputation is like your skyline.
You drive to the city, everybody can see it.
And when you have developed these relationships
and nurtured them, you do more and more business
because the people know your ethics or morals
and how you handle situations.
And when you don't nurture these things, it
slowly corrodes the foundation of who you
are, and you have to go out and acquire new
relationships.
You have to nurture these relationships.
They are symbiotic no matter what level you're
at, and that's the importance of after you
negotiate, now the real pot of gold is all
those other transactions, all those other
relationships, all those other references
and networking things that they'll do for
you and you'll do for them that you'll end
up realizing have paid the best dividends.
PETTIS: There's so many places that are just
waiting for innovation.
I'm in the hospital and I'm like this garbage
here.
This equipment cost too much, it's too hard,
isn't streamlined, has crappy UI, bad user
experience, and people die because of it.
I'm like there's so much opportunity in that.
AGRAWAL: I think having that passion, that
purpose and that thing in that you can be
like, when you close your eyes and be like,
'Can I sit in this for 10 years?'
My answer is yes across the board.
So I think if that is your answer too, then
go for it.
