As an entrepreneur, you love your business like a child, and you’re taught to be laser-focused on the business.
I think it’s only failure if you put the word failure on it. I think it’s part of the process of learning where you’re going to go and what doesn’t work.
If you can’t come clean and tell investors how and why you failed, that raises a red flag. They need to see that you learned from it and came back stronger.
The thing about branding is it isn’t etched in stone. A brand is a mark or an image or a perception we stamp on a product, a concept or an ideal, but it doesn’t last forever. Like anything else, it needs to be nurtured and reinforced, or it will start to fade.
I don’t want to leave my kids an inheritance, I want to leave them a legacy.
I think Wall Street is very important, especially to tech companies. Wall Street will get in their rhythm and go fund tech companies, and tech companies will go create jobs and employ a lot of people, so there’s that aspect of Wall Street.
Try to make all the mistakes with your own money and on a small level so that when you are responsible for a partner’s money or assets you’ve learned and you don’t make bigger mistakes. Try to go as far as you can without anybody else’s help first.
I’m a big advocate of financial intelligence.
I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue.
Pioneers get slaughtered, and the settlers prosper.
Learn as many mistakes and what not to do while your business or product is small. Don’t be in such a hurry to grow your brand. Make sure that you and the market can sustain any bumps that may occur down the road.
Truth is the easiest thing to sell.
Make sure you’re doing something that you love, that you’re willing to do for the rest of your life. If you’re doing it for money, that’s the only thing you won’t make.
In my mind, there are too many copycat web products out there that are doing the same thing.
I’ve come to learn that my initial investment is more about the person versus the product that I am buying into. I’ve also learned that I really do enjoy giving worthy people an opportunity of a lifetime.
Poor people put a low value on themselves and their efforts.
I look to work with businesses that know what they are doing but need larger distribution or exposure.
The easiest thing to sell is truth.
It’s gotten to where an entire nation can be energized by the force of a single idea put out into the world in a passionate way through social media – at little or no cost.
Told myself it didn’t matter if my ride didn’t turn heads – it only mattered that it turned things around for me.