Startup founders vs entrepreneurs

The author's point about "entrepreneurs" not being exclusive to the world of startups is exactly what I hope to show with my book this fall. It's a dangerous mindset because in this internet age, we need more people to be thinking about themselves as entrepreneurs.

I am reading a good book by Daniel Pink called "To Sell Is Human" at the moment, which makes the point that many people who do not think they are working in "sales" actually are. It sounds trite, but he does go into a lot of useful detail and advice from there - and this ties into your point. I look forward to your book.

"My personal opinion is that if you're starting off from a position of weakness (i.e. you're poor and not famous), and especially if you're not in a startup hub like Silicon Valley, it makes a lot more sense to go down the entrepreneurial route than to go via the startup route."

I think this is particularly good advice if you're not a developer or aren't able to make the time available to really dig into learning how to code. Odds are you aren't Steve Jobs and won't be able to recruit the technical partner you want to work with to build your uber brilliant idea for reasons articulated here many times before.

There's nothing defeatist about building a viable, cash-generating business in lieu of standing around waiting for the magical technical co-founder of your dreams to fall into your lap. Plus, if you create something of value (be it content or otherwise) in the field you're looking to get involved in, you're much more likely to put yourself in a position to be able to recruit the kind of person you want to work with anyway.

Excellent talk, definitely worth watching, and related to this article's topic.

Totally with you on ::just get something going instead of waiting for a technical co-founder::, but honestly if you're passionate w/o all the skills to make your business, it's not hard to find someone who can be passionate about it too.

I remember some quote about a guy who asked a VC, "How do I find engineers to help build my product?", and they said, "I don't know, but the best entrepreneurs always do".

There are technical people everywhere - plenty of them are bad at raising money, making money, etc., but would jump at the chance to work on an idea they love. Help liberate a great technical person.

At my company, I focus on the mech. eng./ business side, while my co-founder does all the software. It's been great so far, and we both get to work on something we love.

If you have an idea you love, don't sacrifice it because you don't have all the skills - you rarely will. Try to do some small version of it as fast as possible. This will show your co-founders-in-waiting that you've got the chops to run this business so they feel confident in having your back technically while you have theirs on the business end.