You may ask yourself how did I get here? * This life found you.

You may ask yourself how did I get here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8

Over the course of 20 years, I have advised 200+ start-ups as they have gone to market.  

The first day that Niklas Zennstrom came to my office he had been raising capital for more than 18 months and was near broke.   Howard Hartenbaum who was managing Tim Draper’s father’s money introduced me to him in August 2003.  We were their first advisors.  Niklas didn’t look like the guy who would sell Skype less than 2 years later for 2.5 billion USD.    

Twas ever thus….

Draper Pere apparently said to Howard: ‘go find the guy who disrupted the music industry with Kazaa.   He’ll be doing the same thing to another industry.’  And so we met, and 4 of my team flipped into Skype after working with them as consultants for a year.   

Working with a start-up through their near death experiences to their breakthrough moments is a drug.   There is simply nothing better than it in life.  To see the ingenuity of people working to change the world for the better is the most addictive thing on the planet.   You never get over it, and you never get enough of it.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Niccolo Machiavelli

But don’t think that you get pats on the back for what you do.   It’s not as if the world necessarily appreciates the entrepreneur.   People get jealous.  They don’t understand how decisive you have to be.  You don’t have the luxury of holidays; you simply answer the phone in another location.

Innovators get into trouble.   Caravaggio was one of the greatest painters of all time.   He painted the world as it was, not pretty.   He was trouble, and that got him into trouble.     

Misfortune befalls innovators because as Machiavelli says above, they are bringing about a new order of things. The status quo has teeth.

Entrepreneurs see what is inevitable and make it happen.

When I met Angry Birds in Helsinki, they didn’t want to tell me about their success; they were flying high at that time – pun intended.  They wouldn’t stop talking about the 4 times they nearly went bust.

Every entrepreneur has his/her near death experiences.   The people who stay with them in the trenches help them get to their near death experiences. I've been lucky to provide air cover to a number of the entrepreneurs I've worked with over the years. It's what you do if you really back entrepreneurs; you don't abandon them in the trenches.

A close friend of mine who was backed by Sequoia Capital and sold his business for nearly $300 m in 2007 told me the story not too long ago of the day that they decided to quit.   They had plateaued at $10 m of revenue, and the product was just not going to scale.   They voted to shut down the firm and return the money to shareholders on a Friday afternoon.   And then one of his Board Directors called him on Saturday morning and said ‘David think about everything you know.   You know that the 1st product doesn’t work, but you also know that the 2nd product has potential.   I’ll back you to take the 2nd product to market.’  And they did.   This became one of the best capital markets products ever developed.

As Candace Johnson the founder of SES Astra always says, ‘Never Give Up; Never Accept No; Never Go Away … Even When They Want You To.’   Candace should know:   She’s been sued by some of the most powerful people in the world, and won.  She’s been called the most dangerous woman in Europe.  She broke up the monopolies of the state-owned mobile telecoms industries for competition.   She’s created one of the most successful companies in European tech history ever.  Angel investors made 1000% return on their early millions.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Don’t be an entrepreneur because you think it’s cool.   It's actually not.  Or you don’t want to work for someone else.  You work for everyone.   Be an entrepreneur if you honestly will not be ok if you don’t do what you take to market.   Entrepreneurs are people who are literally NOT QUITE RIGHT in the head.     Does anyone really think that Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk, or Larry Elison are ‘nice’ people.   I highly doubt they are.  They have created great businesses, and while they don’t get a free pass for their foibles, they move the world forward – solving problems from which all of society benefits.

So you may ask yourself, how did I get here?   The answer is:  you didn’t choose this life.   It found you:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8