Discovering Your Path to Entrepreneurship
[Originally published 9/7/99]
Are you working on a business plan in your spare time? Have you ever dreamed of running your own company? Has someone whom you know become fabulously wealthy through a successful IPO or acquisition? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're not alone. Business school students across the country are turning down six-figure salaries with large, established firms to take the entrepreneurial plunge.
But there's a lot more to starting a successful company than coming up with a unique idea and preparing a well-written business plan. Aspiring entrepreneurs must finance their companies, attract and retain talented employees, develop a compelling product or service, convince customers to actually purchase their product or service, and form strategic partnerships - all in addition to such mundane tasks as finding office space, buying equipment, and handling benefit and payroll issues. For first-time entrepreneurs, the startup process can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are willing to share their experiences with students. In a new weekly column called Paths to Entrepreneurship, we will speak with approximately thirty entrepreneurs during the school year to find out what lessons they've learned along the way and what advice they have for students considering a startup of their own. While the majority of the entrepreneurs will be from high-tech companies, we'll also profile entrepreneurs in other fields such as biotech, financial services, non-profit, real estate, and family-owned businesses.
In the column, we will also explore the career path that led each of these people to become an entrepreneur. While starting a company right out of business school is certainly one option, most entrepreneurs wait until later in their careers to jump into an early-stage startup. For example, many future entrepreneurs join established, pre-IPO companies upon graduation and observe the founders and executive management team in action. Others join large firms and become "corporate entrepreneurs" by aggressively pursuing new business opportunities for their employers. In either case, these entrepreneurs solidify their business school training in a real-world setting and establish an extensive network of contacts within a particular industry before starting companies of their own. As we'll see, almost any career path can lead to an entrepreneurial venture. The important thing is for students to honestly assess their skills and experience, lifestyle factors such as work/life balance, and their ability to deal with uncertainty to determine the best time to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations.
Throughout the school year, if you have suggestions regarding entrepreneurs to profile or ways in which the column can be made more relevant to you, please send your feedback to gpal@mba2000.hbs.edu. We hope you enjoy the column. Good luck with your entrepreneurial endeavors, now or in the future!
Are you working on a business plan in your spare time? Have you ever dreamed of running your own company? Has someone whom you know become fabulously wealthy through a successful IPO or acquisition? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're not alone. Business school students across the country are turning down six-figure salaries with large, established firms to take the entrepreneurial plunge.
But there's a lot more to starting a successful company than coming up with a unique idea and preparing a well-written business plan. Aspiring entrepreneurs must finance their companies, attract and retain talented employees, develop a compelling product or service, convince customers to actually purchase their product or service, and form strategic partnerships - all in addition to such mundane tasks as finding office space, buying equipment, and handling benefit and payroll issues. For first-time entrepreneurs, the startup process can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are willing to share their experiences with students. In a new weekly column called Paths to Entrepreneurship, we will speak with approximately thirty entrepreneurs during the school year to find out what lessons they've learned along the way and what advice they have for students considering a startup of their own. While the majority of the entrepreneurs will be from high-tech companies, we'll also profile entrepreneurs in other fields such as biotech, financial services, non-profit, real estate, and family-owned businesses.
In the column, we will also explore the career path that led each of these people to become an entrepreneur. While starting a company right out of business school is certainly one option, most entrepreneurs wait until later in their careers to jump into an early-stage startup. For example, many future entrepreneurs join established, pre-IPO companies upon graduation and observe the founders and executive management team in action. Others join large firms and become "corporate entrepreneurs" by aggressively pursuing new business opportunities for their employers. In either case, these entrepreneurs solidify their business school training in a real-world setting and establish an extensive network of contacts within a particular industry before starting companies of their own. As we'll see, almost any career path can lead to an entrepreneurial venture. The important thing is for students to honestly assess their skills and experience, lifestyle factors such as work/life balance, and their ability to deal with uncertainty to determine the best time to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations.
Throughout the school year, if you have suggestions regarding entrepreneurs to profile or ways in which the column can be made more relevant to you, please send your feedback to gpal@mba2000.hbs.edu. We hope you enjoy the column. Good luck with your entrepreneurial endeavors, now or in the future!
posted by gnp at 3:08 PM
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