JonBischke.com

I mentor a few younger entrepreneurs. A little while ago two of them (co-founders in the same company) emailed me sharing with me the ups and downs of the last six months. Here was my response. Since it doesn’t reveal any sensitive info I wanted to share it with the world on the chance there’s something in here that informs or inspires someone.

Hey guys. Keep plugging away. Good things will happen. In this market, and as first-time entrepreneurs, I’d focus real hard on a model that gets you to cash-flow positive. Even if it’s sacrifices the long-term vision temporarily I think it’s a better play. Very few people are raising money these days and those that are are typically giving up huge chunks of equity. If you can get to a break-even model then you have the luxury of raising money or not and it becomes less about people buying into you and more about them buying into what you built (something that is usually preferable, especially in a down market).

And take this opportunity to soak up all the entrepreneurial wisdom you can. Read Founders At Work, Four Steps to the Epiphany, 1,000 Dollars and an Idea, etc. Listen to every episode of Venture Voice and Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders. Listen to some of them twice. Read every blog post on Venture Hacks and every essay Paul Graham has ever written. Subscribe to a bunch of blogs (like Eric Ries, Fred Wilson, Mike Speiser, Umair Haque, Marc Andreessen and Mark Cuban). Subscribe to more blogs than you can ever possibly read and then ruthlessly pare them down so you reading the best possible information you can. Figure out a way to get on TheFunded.com and read every single thing everyone there has written (and realize that a lot of it is crap of course! ).

And network relentlessly. Make it your mission to be the most connected people your age in your city. Get to know the VCs that are there to the extent that you can (even if you’re not actively seeking their money). Connect with other entrepreneurs, especially those who are older and have “been there, done that” before. Use the social nets like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach out to people and establish stronger relationships. And start blogging. That’s a great to connect to people and it helps you to refine what you’re passionate about and where you are world class. Connect to influential bloggers too. They’re the power brokers of this new world we’re moving into.

You guys are young. You’re already light years ahead of where I was at your age. And whether what you are doing now becomes a huge success or it doesn’t the most important is who you guys are becoming. Businesses come and go. But the stuff you learn now and the networks you guys build will be with you for the rest of your lifetime. And you’re in an incredibly fortunate position to be realizing that at a young age. Most people don’t figure that out until they’re in their 30s, 40s or later and they’re saddled with a mortgage and ton of credit card debt and they have families and then at that point there’s little chance they’ll step on the entrepreneurial treadmill.

So do all of that. Take as much risk as you can as early as you can. Put yourselves in positions where there’s a really good chance that you’ll fail. And learn, learn, learn. We’re moving into a world where the person who is learning 8/10/12/14 hours a day is at a huge advantage over the person who isn’t. The world is changing ridiculously fast right now and that’s to your advantage if you’re continually sharpening the saw. And there has never been a better time to do that. With blogs, podcasts, Twitter, more great books than ever. You are really in an absolutely amazing position.

If I can do anything else to help you guys out don’t hesitate to ask. If one day when you’ve just sold a massive company that changed the world you can tell me that my advice was 0.0000001% of what got you there then this email is totally worth it. But the other 99+% is out there right now waiting for you guys. So go out and soak it up. There is SO much opportunity out there. It has never been a better time in the history of the planet (dot com era INCLUDED) to start a company. And it’s most absolutely never been a better time to be young to get all this technology that’s changing the world faster than anyone realizes.

Hey, I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to post this email to my blog as well. Won’t reveal you guys of course, just want to see this shared with more peeps.

Keep rocking and keep on letting me how I can help!

Jon