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Greetings all,

In this week’s episode of Ventures, we pull clips from Ep43 (Dave Parker), Ep14 (Troy Henikoff), and Ep47 (Alex Giannikoulis) to dive into the specific topics surrounding ideation, validation, creation, and early growth of a new business. We talk about market-first vs. team-first, finding a co-founder, financial modeling, and practical advice from the perspective of investors and entrepreneurs on how to build a company from the ground up.

Check it out: How to start a business :: with Dave Parker, Troy Henikoff, and Alex Giannikoulis

Building businesses and why it matters

Forty four percent (44%) of all economic activity in the United States is from small businesses. In addition, 47.5% of all Americans are employed by small businesses. Needless to say, a huge portion of our country is powered by entrepreneurs taking the risk to spin up and sustain a new business, and 16x more patents are produced by these businesses.

Innovation is what drives us forward as a species. It helps us live longer and better lives.

Having worked with founders for 15+ years - and built/funded businesses of my own - I have a strong amount of empathy for the process and a ton of lessons learned along the way that I’m happy to share in podcasts and articles. While I used to think that everyone can start a business, I now understand that the right team composition is absolutely critical. What is needed is a visionary person/team who can “sell” the idea, and an operational-focused person/team who can build it.

Success or failure often depends on the speed and quality at which both sides can execute their jobs.

I’m glad to be able to pull in a few clips for this week’s podcast episode from experienced entrepreneurs-turned-investors. Their insights are pure gold and I can’t thank them enough for sharing their wisdom with us.

Have a great rest of your week!

~Will