Seven Lessons from a 2-Year Old Startup

Been a minute since my last post. For the past couple of years I’ve been heads-down building KITE from pre-seed to viable business. Today is our second-anniversary from incorporating, so I thought it might be helpful to share some learnings for fellow entrepreneurs and those pursuing innovation in their businesses.

Top 5 things an Entrepreneur Should Know

Today, when I was speaking with a friend of mine who created a start-up last year after an amazing, successful run at large-company brand management, he shared these five truths discovered in the process:

1. It takes longer than you projected
2. It costs more than you projected
3. Interesting who actually helps you vs who said they would
4. Takes intense focus on fundamentals of business; lots of potential distractions
5. No one beats a path to your door. You must go get the business.

It’s a blast (he said this but didn’t include this one in the “5” but it’s why all of the above is worth it. What’s your top 5?

Career Advice Meme

Jeremiah Owyang created a great post for career advice to those within corporations–his disclaimer was that these principles apply to moving up within companies, not entrepreneurially. I actually think some are universal, so here’s a recap, the entrepreneurial view and my a few career tips of my own: