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Tuesday, December 1, 2009
How you can help young entrepreneurs
By Jason Evanish of GreenhornConnect.com
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
MHT's Galen Moore: Hiring trends and opportunities
MHT's Doug Banks: 10 Women to Watch in tech
As young entrepreneurs, we bring passion, energy and fresh views on problems. We’re hard working, curious and eager to learn. We’re also lacking a few important tools in the entrepreneur’s utility belt: experience from past ventures, a well-developed network and a healthy bank account to draw from. While it would be easy to say the biggest need for us is funding, I believe there are greater needs.
It’s never been easier for us to bootstrap our startups. We launch websites and use social media to garner attention with next to no money, which has worked for everything from restaurants to presidential elections. We are the Internet generation, so the majority of us have the skills to fully utilize these tools for our startups.
Some of my fellow young entrepreneurs have lamented that it would be much easier if they could focus exclusively on their startup as opposed to having to hold a different job while they develop their business. I believe this bootstrapping phase is important to our development as entrepreneurs. We learn time and budget management skills, as well as how to say “no”; sometimes the most important thing we can do is understand where our time is best spent. For those of us that are still looking for the opportunity to develop their startups exclusively, there are now over 22 different incubators across the country to apply to (8 of which are in our area).
What we really need is help through mentoring and networking. We don’t have the Rolodex or the reputation that more experienced entrepreneurs possess, and we could learn a lot from your experiences and knowledge. Some people are already helping us in this area. A number of VC firms have started to hold open office hours: Rob Go of Spark Capital, Chip Hazard of Flybridge and Polaris Ventures’ Dogpatch Labs.
Another effort is DartBoston’s Rule 53, which is bringing together an experienced entrepreneur and a young entrepreneur who is starting a business in a related industry. Whether in person or through a phone conversation, the two entrepreneurs then have an open discussion about leadership, business and life’s challenges that is recorded and aired on the DartBoston website. Often these discussions continue after the show is taped, which has had a significant positive impact for those who participate in the show.
There are a number of other related efforts starting, such as the Innovation Open Houses, Mass Challenge, IDEA at Northeastern and Tech Tuesday (launching a new mentor-matching program for their January event) that will also help us with these challenges.
So what can experienced entrepreneurs do to help? Donate some time. Can you spare a few hours a month to meet with one of us? Consider holding your own office hours, having your company host an Innovation Open House or coming to an event where there are more young entrepreneurs to meet (BYE, DartBoston, etc). We don’t expect you to help everyone, but if there’s a good match, you could make a big difference.
Also consider looking around your own organization. Are there any young employees or interns that are aspiring entrepreneurs? You’d be surprised how much an hour of your time could mean to them. Make sure they know you’re available because it can be intimidating to ask to meet with the executive of a company you work for.
If you don’t have enough time to commit to mentoring, consider being a connector. You likely know someone in your network who could help one of us; we can go to networking events any night of the week and still be unlikely to meet some of the great people you know.
If we all do a little, it can add up to a lot. Just a little time can make a big difference, so all we ask is that you help at whatever commitment level is possible for you. Just do what you can and I assure you, we will be quite appreciative. And when we meet, don’t be afraid to ask us for help; we might be able to answer some questions you have about new trends or technology.
Jason Evanish is the co-founder of GreenhornConnect.com, a resource site for entrepreneurs.
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