ETech - from coder to co-founder -1

The first day of ETech is tutorial day.  I went to Marc Hedlund’s From coder to co founder - Entrepreneur for Geeks session. Marc Hedlund is the cofounder of Wesabe. He had series of startup on his belt, some folded already though. Wesabe has been profiled extensively recently and looks will be Marc success story. I’ very valuable from people who made it to share the experience and pointers. Marc did a great job!

His session covers Entrepreneur, Starting, People, Funding, Strategy, Tactics, Case Studies and Learning More resource.

Here some pointers:

[entrepreneur]

How do you know you are ready to start something? If there is a idea keeping coming back to you to make you think more. You’re kinda ready to start something. It’s good to be king, while everyday there are something new to deal with, from leasing office space to get funded.  There are excitement and afraid. If the excitement is more than the afraid, you are ready to go.

As an engineer (or coder), you may want to spend more time with others, say sales person, to shape your idea to be better.

If your goal is to get rich, the chance is much better to just join a good startup than starting your own.

[Starting]

Idea matters. Investor can get in and out to make money even it’s bad idea, you can’t. Build what you know by giving what people need. Marc interviewed 1500 people before start Wesabe.

If you keep your secret from the market, the market will keep secret of your product from your customer.

Momentum builds on itself. You need have something tangible to communicate with your partners, employees, investors, etc. Something on paper is more serious than talking and more committed to others.

You need a co-founder, which is hardest thing to start. Two co-founders are good, three are to many, maybe.

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more is coming….